Into Time
by Moonelf
Summary: Buffy’s still reeling from being dead, every ones worried about her, especially Giles. Then things go from bad to worse when she disappears, again. Where could she be? Or is the question When? Season Six, GB
1. Ripper

A/N- Hi all, This story takes place in Season six, right in the middle of the episode 'Life Serial'. I know you've all probably seen this and might be a little bored with the first scene, but I wanted to establish what part of the episode I'm starting from. Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think! :-)  
  
Chapter One ~*~ Ripper  
  
"Your motorcycle is loud" Buffy said as she walks in behind Spike. He turns to her and gives her a looked.  
  
"Sssspike" The bartender said looking around at the two of them. Buffy cringes when she sees that the bar tender has a forked tongue.  
  
"The usual Dave" Spike said taking out his wallet. "And one for the lady" He said nodding to Buffy. The bar tender puts two shot glasses on the table. "We're heading for the back room, pet"  
  
Buffy just gives him a look. She turns to the bar tender as he starts to pour the shots. She grabs the bottle from him and pulls of the pour- spout and takes swig. Spike pulled out a few more bills and puts then down on the bar and turns to walk away with Buffy right behind him.  
  
"This is where the real action is" He said as he walked towards some door. Spike opens the door and Buffy walks into the liquor filled room.  
  
"These lowlifes know everything that happens in this town" Spike said pointing to the group of demons sitting at a table.  
  
"Oh, good." Buffy said smiling at them she said raising her voices a little. "These are the lowlifes" The four turn to look at her then go back to their game.  
  
"Fine. A little louder" Spike said walking over to the table. "Boys, what's the game?" Spike said to the green demon sitting in the middle.  
  
"You know the game, Spike, you in?" The green one says with what you might call a smile.  
  
"He kills our kind. Don't let him in" The demon with about 15 eyes said glaring at Spike. Spike, not one to take an insult, picks the many eyed demon up out of his chair. Buffy walks over and smiles.  
  
"Ooh, ask him if he's heard..." She starts but Spike cuts her off.  
  
"Later" Spike said throwing the demon at the doors and sitting down.  
  
"You're gonna play cards?" Buffy asked in a disbelieving tone.  
  
"I need a moment with my lady" Spike said sighing as he gets up and walks Buffy over to the other side of the room.  
  
"You wanna play, that's fine. Okay? I am sticking to the original plan" Buffy said looking over at the demons. "Which one do I kill for information?"  
  
"Listen" Spike said looking from the demons to Buffy. "These guys talk while they play" He said, she looks back at him. "We'll get more info out of their mouths than out of gaping holes in their corpses" Buffy shrugs in agreement and walked over to sit down. She took off her jacket and took a drink of her whiskey.  
  
"I'm in" Spike said sitting back down "Everybody ok with that?" They all shrug and turn to the green demon.  
  
"Ante up" He said as they all reach under the table. They come back up holding a kitten, they put them in a basket in the middle of the table.  
  
"You play for kittens!" Buffy said outraged. They all ignore her and turn to Spike.  
  
"So, who's gonna advance me a tiny tabby, get me started?" They all look away and down at their cards.  
  
"Come on" Spike said looking around at them "Someone's gotta stake me"  
  
"I'll do it!" Buffy said smiling as she took a drink. Spike turns to her and glares. What, you thought I was just gonna let that lie there?" She takes another swig from the bottle. "Blaaah" She said putting the bottle down.  
  
'Ugh, can this get any more boring?' Buffy thought about half an hour later. She looked over at the table and sees Spike jump up out of his sit.  
  
"You wanna fight? You face the two of us" He said gesturing back to Buffy. She looks around and snorts.  
  
"What?" Buffy said standing up "I'm not getting into a bar fight!" She slurred a little "I'll beat 'em up for information, great, but not to defend you right to gamble for kitten! Which, by the way, is a stupid currency"  
  
"They're delicious!" The green demon said as the other demons nodded in agreement.  
  
"Come on, Slayer, a big fights just what you need" Spike said smiling at her.  
  
"Forget it" She said "I'm not playing by anyone else's rules anymore" She said as she got up "I'm done" She staggers over to the table and opens the basket of kittens and tips in over.  
  
"Hey!" One of them says as they try to recapture the kittens.  
  
"Be free, kittens!" Buffy said before turning and walking out of the back room. Spike looks at the kittens and turns and runs out after Buffy.  
  
"What's wrong, Luv?" Spike said when he had caught up with her.  
  
"What's wrong?!" She said turning on him "You were gonna help me! You, you were gonna beat heads and, and, and fix my life! But you're completely lame!" She almost yells while gesturing wildly with her arms. She doesn't even notice that her jacket is slipping down her arms.  
  
"Tonight sucks! And, and look at me! Look at, look at stupid Buffy!" She says as she starts to pull on her jacket "Too dumb for college, and, and, and freak Buffy, too strong for construction work." She pulls her jacket up "And, and my job at the magic shop? I was bored to tears even *before* the hour that wouldn't end! And the only person I can even stand to be around is a ... neutered vampire who cheats at kitten poker."  
  
"Oh, you saw the cheating, did you?" Spike said a little embarrassed.  
  
"Also? I think you're drunk!" She said tuning and storming out of the bar. Spike stands there for a second feeling totally confused. Finally he moves to the door. He's walking with his eyes on the ground and bumps into Buffy.  
  
"That van" Buffy said looking at the van down the street.  
  
"You want to steal a van, I'm with you Luv, but we have got the motorcycle" He said looking to the motorcycle sitting in the parking lot. She shook her head and looked up at him.  
  
"I've seen it before, at the construction site" Buffy said walking towards the van. When she's about 15 feet away a big red winged demon pops out.  
  
"Rrrah! You have discovered me!" It says putting its hands on its hips. "But do not try to defeat me, for I have been testing you and I know your weaknesses" It said laughing a little.  
  
Buffy walks over as the van starts to drive away. Her first swing misses the demon but she dose manage to kick him in the balls. This, in her drunken state, causes Buffy to fall over on her butt and just sits there. Spike runs over to help but Buffy in having none of that.  
  
"I'm ok! I'm fine! Get off me!" Spike backs away raising his hands in surrender.  
  
"I am well struck" The demon says in a squeaky voice "I call on the misty portal to my demon dimension, where I will lay my head down and gently die" The demon throws something down and a big poof of smoke. Buffy and Spike cough and wave at the smoke trying to see.  
  
"He blew up. Did you see?" Buffy said very proud of herself.  
  
"Yeah I saw" Spike said looking around "He's gone"  
  
"Gotta love it, you know" Buffy said smiling "It makes you feel all powerful and, and..." She looks around and back at Spike. "Kinda sick"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Feeling any better?" Giles said as he walked into the room with a glass of water.  
  
"I think at one point, I actually turned completely inside out" She takes the water Giles hands her and sits down on her bed. "But yeah, better" She takes a drink and smiles.  
  
"I'm sorry I didn't, um, find this demon with my research" Giles said sitting next to her.  
  
"Aw, it's ok. I-it wasn't much of a fight" Buffy said.  
  
"I did how ever find a few things that he could have used for the time skipping," Giles said taking the empty glass from Buffy. "Shall I show you, or are you tired?"  
  
"No I'm pretty mush wide awake" Buffy said standing up "Not like I could sleep now anyway"  
  
Giles smiled and got up too. He led her down the stairs and into the living room where there were like 25 books on the coffee table.  
  
"Uh ... is this all research or just some kind of stress test for the table" Buffy said smiling up at Giles.  
  
"Well I wanted to find something" Giles said sitting down. Buffy sat across from him and picked up a book. She looked over the cover and smiled 'Time Travels Finer Points'.  
  
"Time travel, cool" She opened it and started flipping through the pages.  
  
"Yes, well, let's just put that over here" Giles said taking the book so she didn't read one of the incantations, and accidentally send herself to the dinosaurs.  
  
"This is the one I wanted to show you" he said picking up a book and showing her the page.  
  
"Ohh, that's the evil lint" Buffy said looking at the page. She looked up and seeing Giles confused face shook her head "Never mind"  
  
"This is used to make a person miss different amounts of time" Giles said pointing at a sentence. "See you just tell the spell how much time, then you put it on your target and they miss what ever time you spelled it for."  
  
"Cool" Buffy said looking down at the picture "Well, when it's not being used on me"  
  
"Yes, well" Giles pulled the book away. Her stomach growled and he smiled. "Hungry?"  
  
"Yeah" Buffy said smiling at him. "I could eat." Giles got up and walked into the kitchen. While he was making something to eat Buffy went skimming through some of the other books. She picked up the one Giles had taken away and flipped threw the pages. She stopped on a page written in Latin and tried to read it.  
  
"Giles what does 'alias' mean?" Buffy hollered into the kitchen.  
  
"Another time" he hollered back before he realized what she was probable reading.  
  
"Ok" Buffy said to her self as she read the incantation under her breath. "Capere hinc ad alias, alius locus" She looked up from the book and saw Giles running into the room. "Huh, that's funny" She said before the room started to spin. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was Giles, and he did not look happy.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Buffy sat up and looked around. She seamed to be sitting in a park, after dark. 'This is weird' she thought as she looked around. 'The last thing I remember is Giles' she thought as she looked over and saw some people run through the trees. She got up and whipped around when she heard a women scream. She set off running towards the scream, as she was running she wondered where the hell she was.  
  
She heard the scream again only this time it was followed by laughter. She came to a halt right on the edge of a clearing and watched as the six people goofed off, and were apparently getting high. She just stood there watching and thought 'They should know better then to be out this late.' She perked her ears up as they started talking.  
  
"Thanks Phil" Some one says to the right of who must be Phil.  
  
"No problem" he says passing it to his right. The some one on the right takes a drag and hands it to his right.  
  
"Here you go Diedre" he said passing it to a giggling girl next to him.  
  
"Thanks Ethan" She said smiling. Buffy cringed at that name. While they were passing it between the three of them the other two were building a fire.  
  
"Stupid bloody fire" One of them said kicking a stone. Buffy had already confirmed they must all be British and wondered what they were doing in Sunnydale.  
  
"Aw, don't be a spoil sport" Ethan said handing the man the pipe. "You lost the bet, gotta pay up Ripper"  
  
Buffy froze and tried to look into the dark to see them better. She couldn't see a damn thing!  
  
"Here try this" The unnamed man said throwing Ripper a can of lighter fluid.  
  
"Thanks mate" He said spraying the fire, the flames leapt up and lit up the whole clearing. Buffy gasped as she saw Rippers face. It was him, Giles. But he was like 20, how was that...then she remembered the book, and the Latin and she winced.  
  
"Giles is going to kill me" She said to her self as she walked away from the clearing. If there was one thing she knew about time travel was don't change anything. She didn't want to run into Ripper before she figured a way out of this mess. So she headed to a hotel, luck thing she still had her cash on her from being at the bar with Spike.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"What do you mean she's gone?" Xander said pacing the room.  
  
"I mean, she read from that bloody time book and was gone. I would think you guys would have learned to not take magic lightly" He said looking over at Willow.  
  
"W-well how do we get her back?" Tara asked looking up at Giles.  
  
"I don't know yet" he said sitting down in the chair and putting his head in his hands.  
  
"Well what do we do now?' Dawn said looking around at every one.  
  
"Research" Willow said "It's all we can do right now"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Buffy opened her eyes and for a second didn't know were she was. Then it all came flooding back to her, the book, the incantation and Ripper. She had found an ok hotel last night and had paid for three nights there. She had gotten very little sleep but she didn't sleep much now a day anyway. She sat up and looked around the room. The sun was filtering in through the moss colored curtains. She pulled out her money from the jeans on the floor. She counted it out on the mattress. She had been expecting to have to pay Spike for his help so had brought along a little, so she now had 200 dollars and some change. And with the difference in value it should last her a little while. She had decided the night before that the only person who was going to be able to help her was Giles, so in order to go to him for help she had to be not herself.  
  
She got up and went over to the bathroom. She turned on the lights and jumped as she saw the cockroach scurry across the floor. She got into the shower and 20 minutes later she was dressed and ready. First she needed to go to the store and get some hair dye. She put her money in her pocket and headed out the door locking it behind her.  
  
She walked to the store because it was only a few blocks away; she had gotten directions from the clerk. When she got to the store she found the hair dye's and decided with her natural color, brown. She got a few bathroom things too, a brush, shampoo, a little makeup, some hair ties and some sunglasses. Her next stop was the clothing store, where she got two blouses and a two pairs of really cute bellbottoms.  
  
After she had dyed her hair and changed her cloths she was sitting on the bed trying to think of how to find Giles, uh, Ripper at this time of the day. She could look him up in the phone book, but then she has to call and what she going to say, "Hi, you don't know me but would ya help send me back to my time?"  
  
So she needed to find him some where. Maybe she could go back to the clearing and see if he and his friends showed again tonight. 'Well that sounds like the best plan of action.' 'So' she thought turning to the T.V. 'What to do till then?'  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Anything?" Dawn said coming up behind Willow.  
  
"No, Dawn" Willow said trying to smile at her "Don't worry your sister can take care of herself"  
  
"I know" Dawn said sitting down and pulling over one of the books. "Can I help?"  
  
"Yes" Giles said coming in from the back room "Don't read any of the words"  
  
"Right" Dawn said pushing the book away. "We've been at this all morning" She said sighing "I miss her"  
  
"We'll find a way to get her b-back" Tara said putting her hand on dawns shoulder. "Don't worry"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Buffy walked to the park and shivered at the cold. 'Note to self' she thought 'get a jacket.' She stopped when she heard running feet. She listened to see if she needed to save some one or if it was Giles. She heard a giggle and a scream and realized it was them. She walked a little faster till she got to the edge of the clearing. She stopped and watched as they built another fire and sat down.  
  
'So how do I approach them?' she thought to her self. I could do the helpless girl thing and get there attention, or I could walk over there and introduce my self. 'I don't think that would go over well' Buffy said as she remembered what Giles was like as a teen.  
  
'So what to do?' She thought as she watched them. If the little that her mom had told her, or that she had accidentally heard in her mind, Giles liked to play the hero, so maybe that was a good plan. Just as she was about to run out there screaming that something was after her she heard a noise from the bushes to her left. She stiffened as her slayer senses kicked in. 'There's a vampire over there' she thought, 'probably looking for a snack.'  
  
She turned and walked a few steps before she came to two vampires hunched over a bush and watching Giles and his little group.  
  
"Hungry?" Buffy said deciding she could use this to her advantage.  
  
"Aw, look what's wondered into the woods Mick" One of the vampires said smiling up at her. They both stood and started to advance on her. She smiled and kicked up and stick laying on they ground did a round house kicking the stick strait at one vampire. It hit right in his heart and before he new it he was dust.  
  
"Come and get me" She said smiling at him. She turned on her heal and ran towards where she could hear the group talking. As soon as she could see them she let out a scream that got there attention.  
  
"Help me!" She yelled as she ran towards Giles. He jumped up as she came towards them. The vampire followed her out of the woods. Giles saw him and smiled, pulling out a mini crossbow he shot the vampire and it went poof.  
  
"Oh thank god" Buffy said smiling up at Ripper. "What was that thing?" Buffy asked looking to the pile of dust.  
  
"A vampire" Ripper said smiling down at her.  
  
"Really?' Buffy said adding a little awe to her voice. "Wow"  
  
"Aw Ripper, who's your new friend" A man said coming up behind her. She recognized the voice and had to stop herself from turning and punching him in the nose.  
  
"I don't know" he said turning to Buffy, "You are?"  
  
"B..." She trails off as she realizes she can't give him her real name "Beth" She said smiling at him "I'm Beth Winters"  
  
"Aw, well this is Ethan, Phil, Tom, Die, Randy and I'm Ripper" He said pointing them each out to her. The girl came up to her and smiled.  
  
"Hi" She said "Your American?"  
  
"Yes" Buffy said "I'm visiting a friend"  
  
"Oh" Ripper said smiling "Boyfriend?"  
  
"No" Buffy said "Old school friend"  
  
"Marvelous" Ethan said smirking over at Ripper "Would you like to join us?"  
  
"Sure" Buffy said sitting down in-between Ripper and Die. 'Well this should be interesting' Buffy thought smiling.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Giles was sitting at his desk in the back room reading the book Buffy had read for like the fifth time.  
  
"Giles" Some one said putting their hand on his shoulder. He turned and looked up. There was a girl standing there with long brown hair, big green eyes and a big smile on her face.  
  
"Beth" he said standing up and walking over to her. She still looked just like she had the first night he had meet her.  
  
"Well now, you know that's not my name" She said giggling softly. "You look good Ripper"  
  
"What do you mean that's not your name?" He said taking another step closer.  
  
"Well, deep down you've known for a long time" She said smiling at him. "But now it's time to wake up"  
  
"I don't want to" He said stepping forward again.  
  
"Giles" She said smiling.  
  
"Giles...Giles wake up" Some one said shaking his shoulder. He sat up and turned to find Willow standing behind him.  
  
"Giles lunch is ready" She said smiling at him. He had the weirdest look on his face. "You ok?"  
  
"Yes, yes I'm fine" he said standing up and walking with Willow into the store. Every one was sitting around the table eating. Willow sat down and handed Giles a plate with a sandwich on it. He put it down and smiled.  
  
"I know where Buffy is" he said looking around at them "Or well I know when she is"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"So are you staying in town" Tom asked her "Or do you have a flat some where?"  
  
"No, I'm staying at the Hill Top Inn" Buffy said looking around.  
  
"Not a very nice place" Ripper said looking at her.  
  
"Well its ok" Buffy said "The cockroaches are all real nice"  
  
"Cockroaches?" Die asked looking horrified.  
  
"Yeah well it's not so bad" She said then trying to think of a reason why she might not have much money said "My luggage was all stolen from me when I got off the train from Wales"  
  
"Well that bloody well sucks" Ripper said smiling at her. She smiled back at him; boy did she have a beautiful smile.  
  
"Yes it does" Ethan said smiling at her, even now he had a cold smile like he was thinking of the best way to take advantage of any given situation.  
  
"I'd have you stay with me" Die said smiling at her "But my sister lives with me and she's a Dozy cow"  
  
"That ok, really I'm fine" Buffy said smiling at them.  
  
"Nonsense" Ripper said "You can stay with me"  
  
"You don't even know me" Buffy said  
  
"Well I don't think you'll be any danger to big ol Ripper" Ethan said smiling at her.  
  
"Yeah right" Buffy said sighing inward. "I don't want to impose" She said turning to, she must admit very cute, Ripper.  
  
"Well good then" he said "You won't be imposing" Buffy shivered and put her hands by the fire.  
  
"Is it cold out her or is it just me?" She asked looking around at them.  
  
"No its cold" Tom said standing "Call it a night?"  
  
"Yes, lets" Die said standing as well. "See you gents on Friday?"  
  
"Ok" Ethan said "Walk you home?"  
  
"Sure" She said smiling suggestively at him. "Bye Beth it was nice meeting you"  
  
"You too" Buffy said smiling. She just sat there and watched as they all left.  
  
"Shall we?" Ripper said standing and holding out his hand.  
  
"Thank you" Buffy said raising from the ground "Shouldn't we put that out?" She said pointing to the fire.  
  
"Yes" he said dumping some dirt over it.  
  
"That was nice work with your crossbow" Buffy said as they started out of the forest.  
  
"Thanks" he said taking his coat off and putting it on her shoulders. "So how do you know what good work with a crossbow is?"  
  
"Uh...well...a good friend of mine back home is showing me how to use one, I'm not very good"  
  
"Maybe I could help you" he said as they walked along the path. Buffy smiled and realized she didn't know what the date was.  
  
"You know with out having my watch I lose track off the days" She smiled up at him "What is to days date?"  
  
"It's June fifth" he said smiling at her "1979" She smiled at him and nodded. Then she realized something, if today was the fifth that meant that his friend...what was his name? Randall was going to die next Friday when they meet. 'Oh this sucks' Buffy thought 'And nothing I can do about it' She thought 'I have to let this play out or Giles might stay Ripper forever. She followed him up the stairs into his place and looked around, nice place she thought as she looked around.  
  
"Tomorrow we can go get anything you have at the hotel" Ripper said handing her a balled up shirt and a smile. "You can wear this for bed"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"So what you're telling me is you remember Buffy from when you were, what 20, 21?" Xander said looking down at his sandwich.  
  
"Yes" Giles said smiling at the memory. "She was...is going to be there the night Randall dies" he said lowering his eyes from the group. They may all know about it but it still pained him to talk about it.  
  
"So how does she get back?" Willow asked looking over to Giles.  
  
"I don't know" he said sadly "Beth...Buffy just said good-bye one day, I never saw her again, well I mean..." He looked over and smiled at Dawn "I can only assume we get her back some how"  
  
"We'll that's comforting" Xander said smiling.  
  
"Yes, unless she gets trapped in-between times" Anya said looking over at there faces. "But I'm sure that's not what's gonna or what did...or this is confusing" She said looking to Xander.  
  
"Yeah time travel always is" Xander said patting her hand. "Ok, well let's get going with the research then."  
  
"I'm going to run home for a moment" Giles said getting up and heading to the door. "I'll be right back"  
  
"Ok" Willow said smiling at him "See you in a while"  
  
~*~*~*~*~ A/N- I can't remember if Giles still has his own place at this point, but he does here...:-)  
  
Giles unlocked his door and walked in. He sat his coat on his chair and walked through the living room and up the stairs. He went into his room and opened the closet. He reached back and pulled out a box with a lot of dust on the top. He blew it off, it was marked 'Ripper.' He sat down on the bed with the box and opened it. Inside were a lot of old pictures and his leather jacket. He lifted up the jacket and found what he was looking for at the bottom of the box.  
  
A framed picture of him and who he now knew was Buffy; they were at the park in the day light. How weird it was to see her again after so many years; when in reality he had seen her every day for the last six. She had given it to him the last time he'd seen her.  
  
~Memory~  
  
"I have to go" She said standing with him in the park.  
  
"Where" He said wishing she's stay.  
  
"I can't say" She said handing him the picture.  
  
"Just remember I'll see you later" She said as a tear ran down her check.  
  
"Ok" Ripper said taking the picture and wiping away the tear "When?"  
  
"Not for a while" She said smiling sadly at him. "There's something in the picture for you, don't read it till you know the time is right"  
  
"How will I know when?" he asked smiling at the picture.  
  
"You'll just know" She said smiling at him "Promise me"  
  
"I promise" he said smiling at her "Well, in a while then" He said kissing her on her check. "I love you" he said in her ear before he turned and walked away with out looking back.  
  
~End of Memory~  
  
He looked down at the picture and smiled. He had never opened it, just like he'd promised. He had hated having the picture sitting there waiting for him, but still he waited. Then after a while he put it away and put the memory in the back of his mind. 'Now was the time she had wanted me to wait for' he thought as he took the back off and smiled when a piece of paper fluttered to the ground.  
  
He bent over and picked it up. He smiled when he saw what name she put on the front. In her neat little hand writing in said 'To: Giles' Across the front, he sighed as he opened it with a smile on his face.  
  
A/N- Ok, so? What do we think? Is it any good? I've seen so many time traveling Harry Potter's Were Hermione or Ginny go back in time and fall in love, well I thought why not Buffy? So any way is it any good? Or does it totally suck? You can tell me I can take it...well maybe I can't take it, but tell me anyway. :-) 


	2. Twilight

Chapter 2 ~*~ Twilight  
  
Buffy sat on the edge of the bed in nothing but Ripper's t-shirt. It was now almost 4:30 in the morning. She had been awakened by the sounds of music rolling through the walls. She looked around and found a pair of sweat pants and slipped into them before walking out the door and down the hall.  
  
When she came around the corner she could see him sitting with his back to her. He had a guitar sitting in his lap and he was singing. She had heard him sing before, but it didn't have nearly as much heart as he did now. She just stood there listening to him for a few minutes. She wasn't sure but she thought she recognized the soft slow song.  
  
"I've seen fire and I've seen rain  
  
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end  
  
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend  
  
But I always thought that I'd see you again"  
  
She sighed when she realized that it was the song she always heard Giles playing when he thought no one was listening. She just continued to stand there as he played the way through the rest of the song. When he was done he put the guitar down in front of him and just sat there. Buffy feeling like she was invading his privacy so she turned to leave.  
  
"Well now" He said startling her "Your not going to tell me what you thought?" He turned around to look at her at the same moment she turned around. He smiled at her and she walked over to him.  
  
"It was very nice" She said sitting down next to him on the floor. "Its one of my favorites"  
  
"Oh really?" He said smiling "You a like James Taylor?"  
  
"James?" She said not knowing that name "No, Gil....a friend of mine plays it a lot, back home"  
  
"Oh" He said leaning back against the couch. "So when are you meeting your friend?" He asked.  
  
"Oh, well, I...uh..." She trailed off a little and looked down at her hands. "I'm staying here in the city for a while"  
  
"Ok" He said standing up. "You can stay here as long as you like"  
  
"Thanks" She said smiling at him "You really don't mind?"  
  
"No" He said walking into the kitchenette and getting some tea started.  
  
"You don't seem like the tea type" Buffy said walking into the kitchenette after him.  
  
"Yeah" he said smiling "It helps me sleep" He chuckled and looked up at her "Don't tell Ethan thought, he seems to think I'm a big bad ass"  
  
"I won't" Buffy said smiling at him.  
  
"He probably thinks we're shagging like rabbits in here" He said looking up at her, she turned a little red and he smiled. "I'll be right back" He said and headed to the bathroom. While he was gone the tea he had started got done so, with out thinking, Buffy poured them some and fixed his just the way he liked it.  
  
"Here" She said handing him the cup.  
  
"Thanks" He said smiling as he took a sip. He looked up at her and smiled "How did you know how I liked it?"  
  
"Uh, you seemed like a two sugars light milk kind of person?" Buffy said smiling at him.  
  
"Right" he said letting it drop.  
  
"Do you always play in the middle of the night?" She asked gesturing towards the guitar.  
  
"Only when I can't sleep or are feeling restless" He said putting down his tea.  
  
"Oh" Buffy said putting down her finished tea.  
  
"You should go to bed" He said smiling at her.  
  
"Why, I haven't any where I have to be" She said  
  
"Well you have to get up early" He said walking her to his room.  
  
"Why?" She asked again.  
  
"Because I'm going to show you around tomorrow" He said smiling at her. "Good night Beth Winters"  
  
"Goodnight Giles" She said after he closed the door and she was sure he had moved away from the door. She turned around and walked to the bed. This had to be on of the weirdest days ever.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Giles folded up the letter and headed down the stairs. He had taken the picture out of the frame and put it in his pocket to show Dawn. It would make her feel better to be able to see her sister was safe. He got into his car and turned the radio to the oldies he liked to listen to.  
  
He smiled when 'Fire and Rain' came on and as he listened he remembered the first night she had stayed at his flat in Bath.  
  
She had said a friend from back home played it a lot. Did that mean she had heard him playing when he had thought he was alone? 'How funny' that all that time he had been singing that about her. How was it he didn't see it before now? Did her hair color really change her looks all that much?  
  
He was still thinking this all over when he got to the magic shop. He opened the door and walked in, there was no one in the main part of the store. That must be why the 'closed' sign was up. He walked over to the back door and opened in only to be plowed into by a tall red head.  
  
"Willow?" He said looking down at the girl who was now sitting on the floor in front of him. He looked up to see the rest of the Scooby's hard at work.  
  
"Hey Giles" Willow said. Giles held his hand out to help her up. "Sorry, I was just going to call you" She said smiling "I found something"  
  
"What?" He said walking into the room with her.  
  
"This is the book she read from right?" Willow said pointing to the book in front of her.  
  
"Yeah that's it" he said "But I've been over it five times, there's no return incantation"  
  
"Not now there's not" Willow said opening it to the page Buffy had read from. "But there was" She flipped it to the next page and smiled at him. "You see how this goes from talking about jumping between times to different kinds of time travel. Here read this" She said pointing to the end sentence.  
  
"One of the best ways to travel to and from the past is to have some kind of incantation that tells exactly when and where you want to go. A good example of a return incantation can be..~.. There is also a good range of medallions that you can use to travel through time." Giles stopped and looked up at Willow.  
  
"Someone ripped a page out of my book" He said looking surprised.  
  
"Yes, Giles some one ripped your book, move on" Willow said smiling at him "If it has the return incantation on it, who do you think tore it out?"  
  
"Buffy" Giles said smiling "She sends herself home"  
  
"That's what I'm thinking" Willow said smiling.  
  
"But we should still work on bringing her home" Xander said "Just in case"  
  
"Yes, yes of course" Giles said smiling "We'll still look" He said looking down at the book. How had he missed that? It must be this whole Beth thing had him all turned around.  
  
"Giles?" Willow said smiling at him.  
  
"Oh, what?" He said looking up at her.  
  
"I said what did you go home for?" Willow said again after sitting down next to Tara.  
  
"This" He said pulling something from him jacket pocket. He handed it to Dawn and she smiled at him.  
  
"Is that you?" She asked looking up at him.  
  
"Yes that's me" He said smiling "And that..." He said pointing out Buffy "Is your sister"  
  
"Wow" Dawn said smiling down at the picture "This is so cool, she dyed her hair"  
  
"Can I see?" Willow asked holding out her hand. Dawn handed her the picture and Willow looked it over. She of course could see so much more in the picture then Dawn did. They were both looking at each other so it was more of a profile. She had her hands on his hands in the middle. They were standing in front of what looked like a big museum of some sort. Willow could also see the look in her best friend's eyes. That look that says 'there's no one else in the whole world I want to be with.' She wondered what would happen when Buffy got back. She would keep her fingers crossed for her friends.  
  
"Cool" She said handing it around to the rest of them.  
  
"Yes" Giles said sitting down as well. "So what shall we do now?"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Buffy sat at the kitchen table and sipped her Pepsi. She had been here for three nights now and was no closer to getting home. And tomorrow was Friday. She really didn't what to be here when Randy died. She had gotten to know them all a little and liked them, well all but Ethan, he was a sneaky little bastard. She wished she could just tell Ripper, but she knew she couldn't do that and it was driving her nuts.  
  
Buffy turned when she heard the keys in the door. The door opened and Ripper walked in caring a basket and food.  
  
"What are you doing?" Buffy asked walking over and taking one of the bags of grocery.  
  
"Picnic?" He said smiling at her. She went a little red and smiled back to him. 'This is Giles' She keep telling herself 'Stuffy, tweed wearing, library guy.' She looked he over as he put the food in the basket. 'Oh hell' she thought as he bent over to put the milk in the fridge. 'Stupid Willow and Faith putting these thoughts in her head"  
  
"Beth?" He said smiling at her slightly glazed look. "You ok?"  
  
"Hum? Oh yeah I'm fine" Buffy said smiling at him. "So picnic?"  
  
"Yeah sound good to you?" He said putting the chesses in the basket.  
  
"Yep, good" She said smiling again. 'Damn, damn, damn' She thought as he pulled her off her sit and out the door.  
  
"Come on we don't want to be out there after night fall" He said winking at her.  
  
"Ah huh" Buffy said. She looked back at the door and sighed. 'I'm never going to get home' she thought looking back up at Ripper. 'Oh well'  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Its getting dark we should head in" Giles said smiling at Buffy.  
  
"Ok" Buffy said putting the turkey sandwiches in the basket. "What time is it?"  
  
"Six" He said smiling at her. "Come on" He said helping her up when every thing was packed.  
  
"Did you hear that?" Buffy said looking behind them.  
  
"No" He said smiling "You must be hearing things"  
  
"Yeah" She said not looking so happy now. She heard twigs braking and turned around. "There it is again"  
  
"I don't hear anything Beth" He said walking over to her. She put her hand to her stomach.  
  
"There's something out there" she said seconds before three vampires jumped out of the woods.  
  
"Aw look guys" What must be the lead vampire said "Dinner"  
  
"Spike?" Buffy said looking at the vampire in the back.  
  
"Do I know you Luv?" Spike said smiling a little.  
  
"No" Buffy said looking over at a confused looking Ripper.  
  
"What?" Ripper said pulling his little cross bow from behind his back.  
  
"Nothing just...nothing" She said turning to fight one of them.  
  
Ripper fired at the one who Buffy was about to fight he jumped out of the way and strait into Buffy. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her close to him.  
  
"Appetizer" He said bending down to take a bit.  
  
"Yeah right" Buffy said pulling the stake she had been carrying. She pulled the vampire over her shoulder and slammed him to the ground before dusting him. She looked up and saw that the other two had ganged up on Ripper, who looked like he was doing just fine.  
  
He shot off a second shot and dusted one of the vampires before turning around and finding the third one was gone.  
  
"Beth" He said walking over to her. "Are you ok?" She smiled and looked down at the stake she had dropped on the ground.  
  
"How did you do that?" He asked looking from her to the stake.  
  
"Um...I'm a black belt?" She said smiling. He looked at her skeptically then looked at the stake.  
  
"Come on I've seen the movies I know had to kill it" She said smiling at him.  
  
"Right" He said still a skeptical. "Well let's go before the other one comes back with friends"  
  
"Ok" Buffy said as he grabbed her hand and they ran off. 'What the hell was Spike doing here?' She thought as they walked.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Giles" Willow said waving her hand in front of his face. "Earth to Giles"  
  
"What?" He said looking up with a smile on his face.  
  
"Were did you go?" Willow said smiling at him. They were the only two people in the shop because Xander, Anya and Dawn had gone to get something to eat and Tara had gone home to get some books.  
  
"Just thinking" He said looking back down to his book.  
  
"About what?" She asked looking over at him.  
  
"The first time she fought with me" He said smiling "Black belt indeed" He said looking over at Willows confused look. "Well she had to tell me something" He said. Then he's smile faded and he remembered what happened later that night.  
  
"Why didn't Buffy get rid of it?" He said to Willow.  
  
"Get rid of what?" She asked.  
  
"The Mark of Eyghon" Giles said looking up at Willow.  
  
"Oh...um...well" Willow said thinking of a good answer.  
  
"Willow" he said staring at her.  
  
"She thought it would be useful if...well" She stopped again and looked at him "Your not going to be mad right?"  
  
"I'll try my best" He said dreading what she was going to tell him.  
  
"Well she thought if Eyghon came back she could protect you better if she could draw it to her" Willow said this all in one long breath and looked up at Giles.  
  
"Damn it" He said looking over at Willow. "And how has she been hiding it?"  
  
"A glamour" Willow said in a whisper.  
  
"Willow" Giles said sighing "What am I going to do with you two?"  
  
"Hey we're back" Xander said as the bell jingled.  
  
"Saved by the bell" Willow said smiling at Giles.  
  
"So it would seem" He said going back to his book.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"It was a cute picture" Buffy said smiling at the camera that he had brought.  
  
"No it wasn't" He said grabbing for the camera again. "I look bloody awful"  
  
"No you didn't" She said smiling at him "You looked fine"  
  
"Fine, fine have it your way" He said smiling when she put the camera back in the basket. They walked into his apartment and Buffy looked around.  
  
"Where did all the boxes come from?" She asked looking around.  
  
"Ethan brought them over" He said putting the basket on the counter. "I was going to go though then, want to help?"  
  
"Yeah sure" Buffy said picking up one of the boxes.  
  
"Be careful there" He said smiling at her "Those are filled with books don't hurt your back"  
  
"I won't" She said pretending to be a little weak. "Ok maybe a little help?" He walked over and helped her move the top book to the ground.  
  
"I'll go through this one" Buffy said opening the books.  
  
"Ok" He said pulling another one down. "These are mostly my dad's things" He said pulling out a book.  
  
"Blood rights and rituals?" Buffy said holding up a book.  
  
"Yeah my Fathers" He said taking the book. "There just all going over there" He said pointing to an empty bookshelf.  
  
"Ok" Buffy said taking out books. She piled them next to her then crushed the box when she was done. "Just anywhere?"  
  
"Yeah that's fine" Ripper said as he sat back and lit up a cigarette.  
  
"You know those things will kill you" Buffy said looking over to him as she put a book on the self called 'Time Travels finer points'.  
  
"I know" He said smiling at her.  
  
"Then why do you do it?" Buffy said as she put books away.  
  
"Because" He said exhaling "The way I see it by the time it makes me sick I'll be old and sick already so, who cares?"  
  
"Right" Buffy said smiling. He put the cigarette out and grabbed another box to unload. They worked in silence for the rest of the time. As Buffy was finishing up the last box Ripper got up and walked over to a window.  
  
"Hot?" He said smiling at her.  
  
"Yeah I am a little warm" She said it was semi winter so still not very warm so Buffy had spent all her time her with some kind of over shirt on. But being that she was warm from all this work she pulled off the sweatshirt Ripper had let her wear and smiled over at him. She had on a tank top under nether.  
  
"That's better" She said looking at Ripper who had his back to her. She put the last few books on the self and got up. "Want something to drink?" She asked as she walked over to the kitchen.  
  
"Sure" he said watching the people walk by on the street. Buffy grabbed two Pepsi's and walked over to him and looked out the window.  
  
"So what do we do now?" Buffy said sipping her soda.  
  
"I don't know" He said smiling at her "We could go get something to eat, or we could stay here and I'll make you something"  
  
"Oh, you can cook?" Buffy asked turning to him with a smile.  
  
"Yes I can cook" He said walking over to the kitchen. "Staying in then?" He asked opening the fridge.  
  
"Yeah ok" Buffy said walking over and sitting at the table "What do you cook?"  
  
"Well I make really good spaghetti" He said smiling at her "I could make you that"  
  
"Ok" Buffy said smiling as he walked over and opened the pantry.  
  
"But it would seam I have no noodles" He said looking over at her.  
  
"Oh to bad" Buffy said smiling "That sounded good too"  
  
"Well there's a store right down the street" He said walking over to the door. "I'll go grab some"  
  
"No you don't have to" Buffy said smiling "I'm sure there's something else we can make"  
  
"No" He said putting on his coat "I said spaghetti and I'll make spaghetti."  
  
"Ok" Buffy said from her sit at the table. "Hurry back" Buffy said smiling at him.  
  
"I will" He said smiling at her. He opened the door and walked out shutting it and locking it behind him. Buffy just sat there smiling after him. 'This is not good' Buffy thought to herself 'I can't seriously be falling for Giles can I?' She crossed her arms on the table and put her arms on her head. 'I have to go home' She said to herself 'Dawn needs me' She thought 'And Willow, Xander and...Giles' was her last thought before she fell asleep.  
  
"Beth" Ripper called when he opened the door. "I'm back" He had gotten the noodles and some French bread as well. He saw her sleeping on the table and smiled. He walked over there and went to shake her a little. But as soon as he could see her back he stopped.  
  
"Beth" He said a little more loudly this time "Wake up"  
  
"Wha..." She sat up with a groggy smile on her face "Did I fall asleep?"  
  
"Beth" He said her name like it was killing him. She turned and saw that he looked like he had seen a ghost.  
  
"Are you ok?" She asked getting up. He took a step back and put the bag on the counter.  
  
"Were did you get that" he said looking her in the eyes.  
  
"What? Get what? Ripper what are you talking about?" She asked as his face went from almost scared to angry in a blink of an eye.  
  
"Don't pretend you don't know what's on your shoulder" He said anger filling his voice. Then it hit her, the tattoo, the one that Ethan had so kindly given her a few years back. The one that she had not gotten rid of incase it ever came back to haunt Giles. 'Ok' She thought 'play dumb, you aren't suppose to know he knows what it is'  
  
"It's just a tattoo" She said 'man I'm a horrible liar'.  
  
"Bullshit!" He said. 'Well here's the Ripper I knew' Buffy thought as she stepped back.  
  
"What do you know?!" Buffy said 'think, think, what I'm I going to tell him?' She thought. Ripper pulled up his sleeve and walked over to her.  
  
"This is what I know" He said pulling his sleeve back down. "Now where did you get that tattoo?" Buffy sighed and looked down at the floor.  
  
"A friend" She said dropping her shoulders "Well not so much a friend as a bitter enemy"  
  
"What?" He said looking at her weird "Why would you let an enemy give you a tattoo?"  
  
"Well he wasn't an enemy at the time" She said 'ok, alright this makes a little sense'  
  
"What does that mean?" He looked less angry and more confused now. "And how did you know how to fight that vampire and when I first meet you why did you so easily except that there were vampires?"  
  
"Well..." She trailed off and looked down at the floor again.  
  
"The truth" He said as she looked up at him.  
  
"Ok" She said taking a deep breath "I know all this stuff because...I know a vampire slayer" She said praying he would believe her.  
  
"You...what?" He said looking at her.  
  
"I know or well that is to say I knew a vampire slayer" She said looking said. 'And she wasn't really lying to him. She had known two other vampire slayers.'  
  
"How...how do you know a slayer?" He said looking at her "I thought they were meant to have secret identities?"  
  
"Well that's true" She said smiling "Now I have a question for you"  
  
"Ok" He said looking worried.  
  
"How the hell do you know what a vampire slayer is?" She smiled a little "It would seam that nether of us is completely honest, now wouldn't it?"  
  
"Ok well that's true" He looked at the bag on the table "I guess we have some talking to do then?"  
  
"I guess we do" Buffy said walking over and taking out a pot. "Over dinner?"  
  
"Ok" He said getting out the noodles.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Ok so" Giles said twirling some noodles onto his fork "He put this tattoo on you then called forth Eyghon and sent him after you in your friend's body"  
  
"Yep" She said taking a bit. "This is really good by the way"  
  
"Thank you" he said "So how did you kill it?"  
  
"Well, ok this is going to be hard to explain" She said taking a drink of wine. "I had a friend that was a vampire"  
  
"Wait, wait, wait" He said holding his hand up "You had a friend that was a vampire?"  
  
"Yeah well, it's a really long story" She said smiling at him "So anyway we got my friend/Eyghon in the same room as the vampire..."  
  
"And it jumped to the closest dead body" Ripper finished for her.  
  
"Right, they battled it out in his body and the demon in my vampire friend won" Buffy said smiling at him.  
  
"Ok" He said "Why didn't you get rid of it?"  
  
"Are you kidding me?" She said "Do you know how painful that would be?" She took a bit "And besides he was dead so there's no harm."  
  
"Well he was gone" Ripper said "he never dies"  
  
"Ok well yeah" She said looking at his arm "So?"  
  
"Well can we just say it was a stupid mistake and leave it at that?" He said looking over at her and smiling.  
  
"Alright but I still want to know how you know all about vampires and things" She said smiling at him. So he told her all about his dad and how he wants him to be a watcher. Buffy smiled and nodded when he looked up at her. And an hour later they were cleaning up.  
  
"I think you should do it" Buffy said putting the last dish away.  
  
"Do you?" He said smiling at her.  
  
"Yeah my friend, she had some really bad watchers" She said walking with him to sit down.  
  
"Oh yeah" He said "Well I'll think about it"  
  
"Ok" He said "One more thing" He said looking over to him.  
  
"Ok" Buffy said smiling.  
  
"How did you know that vampire?" He said looking at her.  
  
"I didn't" She said "I thought he was a friend" She said looking at her hands "But he wasn't"  
  
"Oh ok" He said "Well that's good"  
  
"Yep" Buffy said smiling at him. "Good thing"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"So what's up with the Scooby gang?" Spike asked as he walked into the magic shop.  
  
"Nothing" Willow said pulling out a new book.  
  
"Looks like research" He said looking over at every one "Where's the slayer?" He asked smiling at Dawn.  
  
"More like when" Xander said from his sit in the corner.  
  
"What?" Spike said looking around.  
  
"She's been doing a little time traveling" Willow said looking up at him.  
  
"Oh" He said sitting down next to Dawn. "So what is she lost or something?"  
  
"No we know exactly when she is" Anya said smiling "Just not how to bring her home"  
  
"Oh" Spike said picking up the picture sitting in the middle of the table. "Who's this?"  
  
"Buffy" Dawn said smiling "And that's Giles" She said pointing to the guy next to her.  
  
"Wait she's back with you in the past" Spike said looking over a Giles.  
  
"Yes Spike that is where she is" Giles said not even looking up from his book. Spike turned back to the picture and studied it a little. 'She looks so familiar' he thought to himself.  
  
"Oh shit" he said looking up at Giles.  
  
"What?" Willow said looking over at Spike.  
  
"I know her" He said looking to Giles.  
  
"Well of course you do" He said turning the page. "You and some of your friends attacked us when we were having a picnic"  
  
"Right" he said looking around at every one "What?" He said pulling out a book. "I was a bad guy remember"  
  
"Right, right" Dawn said smiling "A real bad ass"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Beth wake up" He said shaking her a little. "Come on" He said picking her up from where she had fallen asleep on the couch. He carried her into his room and put her down on the bed.  
  
"Good night" He said smiling down at her.  
  
"Night Giles" She said smiling in her sleep. 'Why would she call me by my last name?' He thought as he walked out and over to the living room. He had just told her tonight when he was talking about his family what his full name was.  
  
"Weird" He said as he lay down on the couch. 'I need to talk to Ethan' he thought as he closed his eyes.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Buffy woke up and looked around. Hadn't she been on the couch? How did she get in here? Ripper must have brought her, which meant he carried her. She got up and walking into the living room only to find it empty. She walked into the kitchen and saw the note.  
  
"Beth, I had to run out. I went to talk to Ethan I'll be back in a while. Make your self at home.  
  
Ripper"  
  
Buffy walked into the bathroom and took a shower. She got dressed in a new blouse she had gotten the day before, before they had gone on their picnic. She walked into the living room and turned on the TV. She sat down and flipped through the channels. As she finally found something she could watch. 'The Facts of Life' there was a knock at the door.  
  
Buffy got up and walked over to the door. She looked through the pip hole and sighed.  
  
"Ethan" She said smiling as she opened the door. "Ripper is looking for you"  
  
"I know I just talked to him" Ethan said walking in and looking around "He told me to come tell you he'd be running late"  
  
"Oh" Buffy said closing the door. "Thanks"  
  
"Yep" Ethan said sitting down and smiling at her.  
  
"Well I was just about to run to the store" Buffy said not wanting to be in the same room with him alone. "I'll see you later"  
  
"Wait" he said standing up. "Don't go so soon" he said walking over to her. "Ripper tells me he's been sleeping on the couch"  
  
"So" Buffy said wishing she could bash his head in.  
  
"So you're not interested in him?" He said smiling at her. 'Oh I am so going to kick your ass if you ever show up in Sunnydale again' Buffy thought as he trailed his hand down her arm. Buffy shuttered Ethan taking this for a good shutter went in to kiss her. Buffy put her hand on his forehead to stop him.  
  
"Kindly take your hands off me before I have to break them" Buffy said smiling sweetly at him.  
  
"Yeah right" he said putting his other hand on her waste. "Like a little thing like you could do anything to me"  
  
"We'll see" She said "Now I'll ask you one last time" She said looking into his eyes "Remove your hands before I have to break them"  
  
"Fine" He said taking a step back. "Have a good day" He said sneering at her. He walked out the door and she turned to the fridge to get something to drink.  
  
"Asshole" She said as the door opened again "Go to hell" She said turning to chew out Ethan.  
  
"Sorry" Ripper said smirking at her "Did you mean me?"  
  
"Oh Ripper" She said going red. "Sorry"  
  
"I take it you weren't wishing me to hell?" He said with a smile.  
  
"No" Buffy said smiling a little "Ethan was here to give me your message"  
  
"Oh, sorry about him" He said walking over and taking a beer from the fridge.  
  
"Yeah" Buffy said "Me too"  
  
"I have something to do tonight" he said looking over at her. "You'll be ok here right?"  
  
"Yeah I'll be fine" Buffy said hating that she knew what was going to happen tonight and not being able to do anything about it.  
  
"I'll make you dinner before I leave" He said smiling at her.  
  
"Ok" Buffy said smiling "That sounds good"  
  
A/N- Ok so what do you think? I can take it I swear...well anyway let me now what you think. Oh and reviews, reviews would be nice :-)  
  
Andy- I'm glad you like my take on time travel. It's so much fun to write. :^)  
  
Tweed is Good- By the way I love your name. Also I went to the site that some one left me and it didn't work. SO if you know any good Beta's let me know and I'll love you for ever. :-)  
  
Shelley Barnard- I just love that you want to see more. It makes me all tingly I love writing it so it makes me happy you like to read it. ;-)  
  
Sumiko Kenchi Haimoto- I would tell you what's next but then, well there would be no surprise. There is something coming thought. What ever could it be? :~)  
  
Fantasy Chick- Do you know any good sites that I could put it? Or any with good stories on it? I just love these kinds of story's. 8-)  
  
Chrielle- I'm really glade you like it. I hope you let me know what you think of this one. : ) 


	3. Death

Chapter 3 ~*~ Death  
  
"Oh!" Spike said looking up at the rest of the group. They all looked over at him. "I remember"  
  
"Remember what?" Xander asked looking up from his book.  
  
"Where I meet Buffy" He said picking up the picture.  
  
"I told you, you and your friends attacked us, remember?" Giles said taking off his glasses and looking up at Spike.  
  
"No, I vaguely remember that" He said shaking his head "I ran into her later, must have been the next day or something, she was headed out, it was late, probably around midnight" He said looking over at Giles "She kicked my ass" He put his hand to the scar on his eyebrow and smiled. "She did this"  
  
"That's the night she..." He trailed off as he remembered what happened that night and smiled a little. "Oh she's just going to hate this" He said looking back down at his book.  
  
"What" Willow said looking over at Giles "She's going to hate what?"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"What the hell am I suppose to do?" Buffy said as she walked around the house alone. It was now after 8:00 pm and Buffy was getting restless. She hated this, it was so unfair, she was the slayer and she couldn't do anything. She walked over to the books and pulled on out and sat down to read. 'Blood rights and Ritual' was really boring for having such a gory name and half an hour later she was sleeping.  
  
She opened her eyes and looked around it was still dark out side. She got up with the book and put it back on the shelf. She then walked over to Ripper's fridge and grabbed a Pepsi and opened it up. She looked at it took a drink and sat it back down. 'Ok' She thought 'I can't just stand here' She thought. She looked over at the clock and saw it was close to 11:30. 'Maybe a little patrolling?' she thought as she headed to the door, she grabbed her coat and headed out.  
  
When she got outside she realized she didn't know where any of the grave yards where around here.  
  
"Oh well" She said out loud "Just wondering then" She smiled and put her hand on the cross around her neck. It had been a gift from her Giles on her birthday last year. She wondered how every one back home was doing and for the first time since she'd got there she felt home sick. She missed her sister and Willow, and there was no one here like Xander, and while she really liked Ripper he was not even close to her Giles.  
  
Subconsciously she was heading towards the woods. She had just turned down a dark ally that Ripper had shown her that lead almost strait to the woods. She smiled when she heard a noise and turned. She smiled even bigger when the platinum blonde vampire came out of the shadows.  
  
"Spike" She said looking him over "Man what is it with the trench coat look?" She said looking him over "You'll never change"  
  
"Do I know you?" He said as he started to circle her.  
  
"No not now" She said "But some day you will"  
  
"Well you're talking a little crazy" He said smirking at her.  
  
"Really?" She said getting ready to fight "How's Dru?" She smiled when his face went to surprise "Now there's a girl who's a little crazy"  
  
"Well now I have to kill you" he said shifting to his vampire face. He went to hit her in the face and she grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder.  
  
"Yeah right" She said "I don't have time for this" She said staring towards the end of the ally.  
  
"I don't think so" He said smiling as he came at her from behind.  
  
"Well know that's not very nice" She said ducking so he went over her shoulder, again. She picked up a piece of wood and held it over his heart.  
  
"Leave me be" She said smiling at him.  
  
"No" He said pulling her down and rolling over her and then jumping up. She jumped up and went to hit him in the face but missed and hit him in the shoulder. She took and few steps backwards and he started up.  
  
"Leave?" She said looking over his shoulder.  
  
"No" He said walking forward.  
  
"You just never know when to give up Spike" She said throwing the wood and smiling when it slammed into his face. He put his hand up to his eyebrow and pulled it away and smiled at the blood.  
  
"You missed" he said smiling at her.  
  
"No I didn't" She said smiling back. "Now as much as I'd like to kick you ass, and believe me I would, I have things to do" She said and pent to pick up another piece of wood. With a sharp point on the end.  
  
"Spike?" A new voice said coming out of the shadows. "The birds are talking at me again"  
  
"It's ok Luv" He said smiling at Dru. He turned to Buffy and she had the wood ready to throw and it was aimed at Dru.  
  
"I'll find you" He said looking over at Dru. "Come on Luv lets go find something to eat"  
  
"Ok" She said smiling big at him. They turned and walked down the other way and Buffy dropped the wood and turned to head down the ally. 'I'm not going to help' Buffy said to her self 'There probably done anyway' she thought as she walked out of the ally and ended up on the edge of the woods.  
  
She heard a women scram and heard Ripper yelling at someone. She ran through the woods at her top speeds and stopped when she saw Randy, not quite him self, with one hand on Die's throat. As Buffy got closer she could see that Phil and Tom were trying to fight it off but something was holding it back and Ethan and Ripper were huddled over a book saying something in Latin. The Randy thing got up off of Die and smiled at Ethan and Ripper and started over.  
  
The Randy thing held out his hands and Ethan went flying across the field, he would have landed on a broken branch, which was probably The Randy things intentions, if Buffy hadn't grabbed his leg causing him to lose his momentum and crash to the ground pulling her along with him. It turned to Ripper as he was saying something in Latin. Just as he finished The Randy thing looked shocked and then fell to the ground.  
  
Buffy looked at the Ethan and grimaced. She had just saved Ethan's life. She got up without noticing the blood on her arm. 'Man' She thought 'Coulda just let him fly' She thought as she walked over to Ripper 'Save myself some trouble later'  
  
"Is he ok?" She asked already knowing the answer. She looked down when she got to Ripper who was over Randy's body.  
  
"No" He said shaking his head "He's dead"  
  
"Oh I'm sorry" She looked around and pretending to not know what had just happened. "What happened?"  
  
"It took control of him" He said looking at her "There was nothing I could do"  
  
"Well if you had been here to help ground him" Ethan said as he limped over scowling down at Ripper.  
  
"Well if you had just stopped doing it like I said" Ripper said  
  
"But if you had just been here to ground him, you know we need five people for that"  
  
"Damnit!" Ripper said standing up and glaring at Ethan "Just shut up" He said "Bloody hell!" He walked around and stopped when he looked up and caught Buffy's eyes.  
  
"What are we going to do with him?" Tom asked looking down as he sat down next to Die who was a little pale but ok.  
  
"I don't know" Ripper said not looking away from Buffy. "I just...I don't know" Buffy looked around at every one and sighed.  
  
"Do you guys do any drugs?" Buffy asked walking over to Ripper.  
  
"No" He said watching her watching them.  
  
"And what killed him exactly?" Buffy asked letting her 'take charge' personality take over.  
  
"The demon, when he runs out of room in the body causes the heart to stop." Ripper said.  
  
"That's why you have to stay grounded" Ethan said "So you can get out before that happens" He said glaring at Ripper.  
  
"So tell him you were out here doing something and he just fell over" She said "make it sound reasonable, when they do any test it will just look like he had a heart attack"  
  
"And how put you in charge?" Ethan asked walking over to Buffy.  
  
"I did" She said smiling sweetly at him "If you have a better idea lets hear it" She said and stood there for a second "That's what I thought."  
  
"I think that sounds good" Die said from the ground.  
  
"Me too" Tom said  
  
"Ok well that settles it then" Phil said looking around "lets put him in my car" They all loaded Randy in and Die and Tom went with Phil.  
  
"You sure we don't need to come?" Ripper asked acting strong, but Buffy could see he was going to brake.  
  
"No" Die said with tears in her eyes she looked into the back set "There's no room anyway" She looked at Buffy and smiled "Thanks"  
  
"Yeah" Buffy said taking Rippers hand. "Bye" ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"So Buffy didn't change the time line any did she?" Xander asked as they sat eating at the table in Giles' apartment.  
  
"We wouldn't know" Willow said smiling at him. "If she had it would seem like it had always been like that" She looked around "We wouldn't know any different"  
  
"Wow" Dawn said "that's so wiggy" She said looking up and over at Giles. "She didn't do anything weird did she?"  
  
"No not that I can remember" he said thinking over her stay in his flat. Then thinking about the night she saved Ethan and smiled. Then his thoughts went to later that night a he started to turn red. 'Oh god' he thought as he remembered 'I must have been blocking this from my memory' he thought as his face continued to get red.  
  
"Giles" Willow said looking at him as he colored "Giles are you ok?"  
  
"What?" He said looking up and going even redder.  
  
"Are you ok?" She asked again looking shocked when he jumped up out of his seat.  
  
"I'm fine" He said and turned and walked into the kitchen. 'Bleeding Christ!' He thought as he paced the kitchen 'What the hell was she thinking?' she had to know I'd remember this all, 'Oh what I'm I going to say to her when she get back?' he thought. He jumped when someone put a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Giles" Willow said and smiled when he turned and his face was still red. "Are you ok?"  
  
"God Willow you scared me" He said falling into one of the stools at the island in the kitchen.  
  
"Sorry" She said sitting next to him "Come on something's on your mind what is it?" he shook his head and looked down at his hands.  
  
"Did you remember something?" She said trying to get it out of him. "Did Buffy say something she shouldn't have?"  
  
"N-no" he said shaking his head "Did something she shouldn't have" and the color came back into his cheeks.  
  
"What could she have done that would have been so bad?" Willow asked.  
  
"Not what" Giles said "Who"  
  
"What, I don't get it what are you..." Then it dawned on her. She looked over at Giles and he closed him eyes "Oh" was all Willow said trying not to laugh.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Are you ok?" Ripper asked as they walked into his flat.  
  
"I'm fine" She said smiling at him. She walked over the fridge and pulled out some sodas. He sat down and winced.  
  
"Are you ok?" She asked sitting next to him.  
  
"Yeah" He said and Buffy noticed the blood on his forehead. She got up and pulled out a rag. She wet it then brought it up to his head. He winced a little but didn't stop her.  
  
"I thought you were staying here?" He asked after a second.  
  
"Well I got restless" She said "Go thing to or Ethan would be on the wrong end of a very sharp branch." Ripper smiled and nodded his head.  
  
"Well yeah" he said "I think I did something to my back when that thing threw me over the fire. Of course it was probably hopping I'd land in the fire not over it."  
  
"Yeah" Buffy said "Take off you shirt let me see" He looked at her and smiled as he pulled it up over his head. Buffy got up and walked behind him and looked at his back. There was a bruise forming on his right side. She lifted her hands and very carefully began to work out the knot in his neck. He winced once and she stopped.  
  
"No it feels better" He said turning and putting his hand on her arm. She winced at his touch and he pulled away.  
  
"What happened?" He said getting up and trying to move her sleeve so he could look at it. "I can't believe I missed this" He said looking at her when he couldn't get her sleeve up.  
  
"I'm ok" She said and winced again when he pulled on her sleeve. "Or not" She smiled at him and unbuttoned her shirt and slipped it off. She had a little tank top on underneath. "Is that better?" He looked down at her arm and nodded.  
  
"Yes" He said taking a deep breath. "Let me get some wraps for your arm"  
  
"Ok" Buffy said sitting down with her back to him. He just stood there for a second looking at her. Then he turned and walked into the bathroom. He came back and she was drinking her soda.  
  
"I need you to stand up" He said "So you can stretch out your arm.  
  
"Ok" She said getting up and walking over to him. He cleaned the gash on her arm and was wrapping it up when Buffy winced.  
  
"Sorry" He said looking up at her.  
  
"It's ok" She said and smiled a little. She looked down at her arm and watched as he wrapped it up. Buffy didn't notice when she put her hand on his shoulder but he did, and every time she wince she tightened her grip and little then loosened it again. He smiled at her and looked up at her when he finished.  
  
"All better" He said putting the rag on the back of the couch. They both just stood there till she noticed his forehead was still bleeding. She picked up the rag putting her other hand on his face.  
  
"I'm sorry" She said as she cleaned his forehead.  
  
"What are you sorry for?" He said "I'm the one who didn't get there before they started"  
  
"It's not your fault" She said "You always have a hard time seeing that"  
  
"Yes it...what do you mean I always have a hard time seeing that?" He said looking down at her. "You've only known me a little while" He shock his head and sighed "Never mind, You wont tell me and I don't want you to lie to me so never mind"  
  
"I'm sorry" Buffy said lowering her head.  
  
"It's ok" He said lifting her head with his hand "I know you have your reasons, I don't know you all that well and yet I trust you completely" He smiled "That's never happened to me before"  
  
"Me ether" Buffy said in a small voice.  
  
"You'll tell me someday?" He asked smiling at him.  
  
"Some day I won't have to" She said knowing that it made no sense to him. He just smiled and tilted her head up a little more.  
  
"I'm going to kiss you" He said seconds before his lips were on hers. Her mind was screaming at her to stop 'This is Giles!' it kept saying to her. But as soon as his hand was on hip she felt an electric shock run through her and she tuned out that voice. 'I don't care' she thought as he deepened the kiss and her hands went into his hair.  
  
They went back to his room her being half cared and half walking. She fell backwards onto the bed and he fell next to her. He had his hands all over her when the little voice came back. 'No!' It screamed in her head finally braking through alittle.  
  
"No" She said quietly. "No I can't" She said sitting up and pulling away. He looked up at her and she felt like she could just drown in his eyes. 'How did I never notice Giles' eyes before?' She wondered briefly.  
  
"What?" He said looking devastated "What's wrong?"  
  
"I'm not staying, this...this wouldn't be right, I can't..." She trailed off and looked away from his eyes.  
  
"Beth" He said pulling her close to him "Look at me" He said moving her face with his hand again. "I don't care" he smiled at her. "If this is all we have..." He studied her face, pulling it in so he'd always remember.  
  
"I just..." She trailed off again and he put his palm on her warm cheek. She moved her face into the touch and smiled. She leaned into him and kissed him. He laid her back on the bed and kissed her again. She sighed and even the little voice in her head was in heaven.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Buffy looked down at the sleeping man next to her and couldn't believe what she had just done. 'I'll never be able to look him in the eyes again' she thought as she quietly got up out of bed. It was only 3a.m. but she couldn't sleep.  
  
She pulled on his shirt and walked into the living room. She was bored so she walked over to the book self and pulled out the first book her hand touched and smiled down at the cover. 'Time Travels Finer Points' she opened it up.  
  
"Yes" She said flipping to the page she had read from. There it was, and on the next page 'How to get from then to now'  
  
"Sorry Giles" She said as she ripped the page out of the book. She folded it up and waked over to the purse Ripper had bought her the other day. She sighed and put inside then walked back over to the books. She pulled one of the mysteries off the top self and sat down to read. And figure out how she was going to say goodbye to a man she was pretty sure she was falling in love with.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"So what do you think Buffy is doing right now" Xander asked as he and Anya walked into their apartment.  
  
"Don't know" She said smiling at him "Come to bed, it's been a long night"  
  
"I'm just worried" He said smiling at her as they walked into their room.  
  
"I know" She said "I'm worried too"  
  
"She'll find her way home though" He said kissing her on they forehead.  
  
"Of course she will" Anya said hopping she was right. "Now come on bed time"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Giles is it ok if I stay here tonight?" Dawn asked looking up from her ice-cream bowl.  
  
"Of course you can" He said taking her empty bowl "Lie down and go to sleep, She'll probably be back soon"  
  
"I hope so" Dawn said closing her eyes and stretching out on the couch.  
  
"Me too" He said to him self as he walked to the kitchen. "So how are you doing?"  
  
"Fine" Willow said as she sipped her hot chocolate. "Do you remember how long Buffy is back there for?"  
  
"Well she stayed with me for about a week or so" he said picking up his tea. "Then she leaves, I couldn't tell you where or when she goes from there"  
  
"Right" Willow said "She could be gone for years and still come back today"  
  
"Exactly" He said thinking about that "Lets hope that's not it"  
  
"Yeah" Willow agreed "let's hope"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Beth" Someone was shaking her a little "Beth wake up." She opened her eyes and smiled a little when she saw Ripper standing in front of her. Then the night before came flooding back to her, him and her and oh god what was she going to say to Giles? And the book, she had found the book, which meant she had to go home.  
  
"What are you doing out here?" He asked pulling her up a little.  
  
"I...I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd read" She said looking down at the book on the floor. He bent down and picked it up for her.  
  
"Carrie?" He said looking at the cover "Stephen Kings a good writer"  
  
"Yeah he's good" She said and looked him over. He was wearing a pair of boxers and nothing else. 'Man he looked good' she thought as a blush crept on to her cheeks.  
  
"I'm going to jump in the shower" He said still smiling at her.  
  
"Ok" Buffy said standing up "Do you want something to eat?" She asked not knowing what else to say "I could make something?"  
  
"No after we get ready I'll take us to breakfast" He smiled.  
  
"Ok" Buffy said sitting back down. He sat back down next to her and sighed.  
  
"Beth about last night..." He kind of trailed off and looked down at his hands.  
  
"You don't regret it do you?" Buffy said taking his hand in hers.  
  
"No" He said looking up at her "I thought maybe you did"  
  
"No" Buffy said shaking her head. "It was one of the best nights of my life" Buffy said smiling at him.  
  
"Ok" He said smiling big "That's good, ok I'll see you in a minute"  
  
"Ok" Buffy said and smiled when he turned and walked down the hall towards the bathroom. When she heard the water start she got up and walked over to the closet where they had put the camera the other night. She looked down and saw that it still had six pictures left on it.  
  
She walked into his bedroom and smiled. She snapped a picture of the bed in disarray. She walked over to the window and looked out over the busy street and snapped a picture of the view. She smiled when the water went of, a second later the door opened and he walked in with a towel on and his hair dripping wet.  
  
"Hey what have you got behind you back there?" He asked smiling at her.  
  
"Nothing" She said smiling even bigger. She pulled it out and snapped a picture before he had a chance to react.  
  
"Oh I can't believe you just did that" He said smiling at her. "Well my dear pay back is sweet" he said and went after her. She ran up onto the bed giggling and snapping pictures of him. He chased her around the room and out the door. Finally she was on one side of the couch and he was on the other side.  
  
"Come on now give Ripper the camera" He said holding out his hand.  
  
"No" Buffy said smiling "You'll just have to wait and see the pictures later"  
  
"Fine" He said faking a pout. She ran over and hugged him.  
  
"I'm going to jump into the shower" She said "We still going to breakfast?"  
  
"Of course" He said walking into the hall with her. "See you in a minute"  
  
"'K" Buffy said grabbing his towel and running into the bathroom locking the door behind her.  
  
"Well that was just mean" He said and started to walk away bare backed Buffy popped her head out and said "Cheese" causing him to turn his head just in time for her to snap on of his back side.  
  
"Thanks" She said shutting the door just and he ran over.  
  
"Beth" He said smiling "Give me that camera"  
  
"Nope" Buffy said laughing on the other side of the door. "I'll be out in a few"  
  
"Fine" He said smiling "I'll find that camera"  
  
"Sure you will" Buffy said turning on the water.  
  
"You little minx" he said laughing.  
  
"Waters on cant hear you" She said taking off the shirt.  
  
"Uh-huh" He said walking into his bedroom, completely naked.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Beth" Ripper said looking over at her sitting on the floor reading.  
  
"You can't have the camera Ripper just give it up" She said looking up at him. He smiled a little but shook his head.  
  
"No, I know, I gave up on that" He said patting the seat next to him. She got up and walked over.  
  
"What is it then?" She asked as she sat down.  
  
"Last night you said you had to leave" He said looking down at his hands. "Don't?" He asked looking up into her eyes.  
  
"What?" Buffy said wishing she could.  
  
"Stay here with me" he said taking her hand. "Just stay here, you can write and tell who ever it is you're going to visit"  
  
"There is no one" She said shaking her head.  
  
"Yeah I figured as much" He smiled a little "See then you can just stay" He looked so hopeful.  
  
"I...I can't" She said shaking her head "There are people at home that depend on me"  
  
"You can always visit them" He said smiling at her. "We could both go and see them"  
  
"Oh...I just...there's no way to help you under stand" She said standing with tears running down her cheeks. "I can't" She said. "I'm sorry"  
  
"Make me understand" He said standing "Are you married? Do you have kids?"  
  
"Hardly" She said taking his hand "You wont believe me if I tried" She kissed the top of his hand. "You said you didn't want me to lie to you"  
  
"I don't" He said watching her.  
  
"Then just believe that I can't tell you" She said. She dropped his hand and walked over to the table by the door. "I'm going to get these pictures developed" She said smiling a little.  
  
"Trust me?" She asked as she opened the door.  
  
"You promise your coming back?" He asked still standing in the same spot.  
  
"I promise" She said smiling at him.  
  
"Ok" He said "I'll see you in a little while"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"So how did every one sleep last night?" Willow asked the next day when they had all sat down at the table in Giles house.  
  
"Fine" Xander and Anya said looking tired.  
  
"Ok" Dawn said watching Giles.  
  
"Ok" Giles said pulling a book in front of him. "I think we should open the store like..." He trailed off when he heard the wind and walked into his living room to see a tornado of wind started to blow in the middle of the floor.  
  
"Buffy?" Dawn said standing up.  
  
"Let's hope so" Xander said smiling.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The next day Buffy and Ripper we're sitting in the park. They had been reading but now the sun was going down and it was time for her to go. She stood up and smiled down at him. He stood up too.  
  
"Back to my place?" He asked taking her hand. 'Oh this sucks!' She thought as he smiled at her.  
  
"I have to go" She said standing with him in the park. She pulled something out of her purse and held onto it.  
  
"Where" He said wishing she's stay. He knew just what she meant; he had been waiting for this for the last few days.  
  
"I can't say" She said handing him the picture.  
  
"Just remember I'll see you later" She said as a tear ran down her cheek.  
  
"Ok" Ripper said taking the picture and wiping away the tear "When?"  
  
"Not for a while" She said smiling sadly at him. "There's something in the picture for you, don't read it till you know the time is right"  
  
"How will I know when?" he asked smiling at the picture.  
  
"You'll just know" She said smiling at him "Promise me"  
  
"I promise" he said smiling at her "Well, in a while then" He said kissing her on her check. "I love you" he said in her ear before he turned and walked away with out looking back.  
  
'I love you too' she thought as she watched him walk away with out looking back. She walked into the forest and looked around. She needed to find the spot where she appeared. She walked a little deeper into the woods and sat down. She had about two hours to waste and she was kinda hopping to have a vampire of two come along.  
  
Almost an hour and a half later and still no vampires Buffy got up. She walked back to the edge of the woods and down the line of trees and found there was someone sitting in her way, it almost looked like he was waiting for her.  
  
"Ethan" She said stepping towards him. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Well waiting for you of course" He said smiling at her.  
  
"Why?" She asked not hiding her dislike for him now.  
  
"Well" He said standing up and walking over to him. "To tell you that I figured it out" He said smiling at him.  
  
"Figured what out?" She asked hopping he did something so she could rightfully kick his ass.  
  
"Where you're from" He said smiling a big cocky grin.  
  
"Oh good for you figured out the mystery of me being an American, did you?" She asked standing there with her arms crossed.  
  
"Ok not where then" He said taking a step towards her "I guess its more, when"  
  
"What!?" Buffy said. "What makes you think I'm from any time but this one?"  
  
"Oh things" He said "Any way, at first I couldn't decide if it was the future or the past but then just now you told Ripper you'd see him so I figure-- But she interrupted him.  
  
"You where spying on us?" She said.  
  
"Yeah" He said "So I figure it's the future"  
  
"Well good for you" She said smiling at him. "Now if you'll excuse me I have things to do and places, or well times to be"  
  
"Oh I don't think so" He said putting his hand on her as she tried to pass. She looked down at his hand and back up to him. "No normal human can just snatch someone out of midair" He said smiling at her.  
  
"Oh so that's what this is about?" She said looking down at his hand again. "Can't stomach the fact that a girl saved your ass?"  
  
"Yeah something like that" He said tightening his grip.  
  
"So I'm not normal right?" She asked smiling at him "Super human or something?" He nodded his head "So don't you think it would be smart to take your hands off me?" She said putting her hand on his and squeezing it really hard.  
  
"Well I'll just let you get on with business then" He said letting his hand fall he smirked at her when the bushes around them moved.  
  
"Yeah you do that" She said and sighed when the first vampire jumped out from the bushes. "I don't suppose you'd tell me how many friends you have back there?"  
  
"A lot," He said running at her. She pulled out the wooden sticks holding her hair up and stabbed him in the chest. Five more jumped out and they were all smiling.  
  
"I really don't have time for this" She said looking down at hr watch. The page had said she needed to leave at the same time she jumped the first time. It was almost ten and see figured she left Giles at about 10:45 or so. As she dusted another vampire four more jumped out of the woods. It was now 10:25.  
  
Three of them jumped her at the same time. She dusted the one on top and kicked to the other two away.  
  
"Now normally I'm not one to dust and run" She said kicking one of them in the balls. "But like I said I don't have time for this" She pushed one of them into the little circle they had formed around her and ran. She could hear them not far behind her. She pulled out the page from her purse. She looked around and realized she was in the right place. She looked over the page real quickly then read out the spell. She could see the vampires closing in on her right before the woods started to spine around her.  
  
She felt like she was falling, like she may never stop. Then just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. She looked up and smiled. They were all just looking down at her smiling. Dawn was the first one of them to move.  
  
"Buffy!" She said running over to her. Buffy held out her arms and Dawn jumped into them like a five year old.  
  
"Hey Sis" She said smiling at her. "Missed you" Willow, Xander and Anya walked over leaving Giles standing in the door way looking a little shocked.  
  
"It's good to have you back" Xander said sitting down next to her.  
  
"Man good thing you can read Latin" Willow said smiling.  
  
"Yeah" Buffy said "Of course understanding it's another matter" She smiled at Dawn and got up. She walked over to Giles and looked him over.  
  
"Hey Ripper" She said smiling.  
  
"Beth" he said smiling at her too. "It wasn't very nice to brake Ethan's hand"  
  
"Well it didn't hurt anything" She said blushing a little. "I missed you"  
  
"You were with me the whole time" he said confused.  
  
"No" She said "I was with Ripper" She put her hand on his arm "I missed you, Giles" He smiled down at her and she looked up into his eyes. 'The same eyes' she thought smiling at him.  
  
"I like you hair" Willow said braking the mood.  
  
"Yeah?" Buffy said smiling at Giles before she turned around. "Me too"  
  
"Cute purse" Dawn said getting up and walking over to her. "Did you get it there?"  
  
"Yeah" She said smiling "Ripper got it for me"  
  
"Well I didn't know Ripper had such good clothing sense" Xander said smiling at Giles "Something you need to tell us G-man?"  
  
"Excuse me?" Giles said leveling a glare at Xander.  
  
"Just kiddin" Xander said smiling at Buffy.  
  
"Oh you guys want to see some pictures I took of Ripper?" Buffy said pulling some snap shots out of her purse. She waved them around at Giles.  
  
"You wouldn't" Giles said looking horrified.  
  
"Oh but I would" She said smiling evilly up at him. "I guess you shouldn't have given up so fast huh?" Buffy said laughing when he jumped over the table and shot after her.  
  
A/N- So??? What do we all think? This is not the end of this story, just so you all know. I cant wait to hear from you. Till next time... :-) 


	4. Beginnings

A/N-This is about a week and a half after chapter three.  
  
Chapter 4 Beginnings  
  
Buffy stood on the steps out side of Giles' front door. It had been about a week since she gotten back and despite what Willow (And every one else) said she had not been avoiding him. She just hadn't seen him more then twice. She stood there and smiled when she heard him strum the cords on his guitar. She wondered if now that Giles knew it had been her all those years ago if he still felt the same way he did when she left.  
  
To tell the truth she wasn't sure how she felt ether. She was so confused. On one hand she had fallen for Ripper, but like she herself had said they are not the same person. But in some ways they were very much the same. Caring and loving and those eyes... Her thoughts trailed off a little as she thought about it. And so that was way she had come here to day. She needed to talk to him and see...well...see what was going on.  
  
She had told Willow she was coming over here today and to keep every one else away. She raised her hand to knock and then let it drop again. This was about the third time she had tried to knock. 'I'm getting nowhere with this' she thought to her self raising her hand to knock. But as she was about to the door opened and Giles was standing there smiling at her.  
  
"Ok, so have you been turned into a vampire and can't come in with out an invitation? Because you've never had to knock before" Giles said smirking at her.  
  
"Hello" She managed looking up at him. She had gotten so deep in thought about Giles that she hadn't even noticed the music stop. Was this a good thing or a bad thing?  
  
"How long have you been standing out here?" He asked shaking his head and ushering her in. It was so hard to look at her and not see Beth, his Beth. While they were the same people he wasn't sure how she felt, now. He had been sure how she felt then, but now, it was a whole other life.  
  
"Um...five minutes?" She said walking in and sitting down. "See not a vampire"  
  
"Well that's good to see" Giles said walking over to where he had his guitar. He picked it up and went to put it in its case.  
  
"Don't" Buffy said before she could stop herself. He looked over at her and smiled. "Play me something?" Buffy said looking from him to the guitar and back again.  
  
"What should I play?" Giles asked walking over to a chair in front of her and sitting down.  
  
"Um..." Buffy thought back to all the oldies music she liked. "I don't know" Buffy said smiling "You pick one" She said sitting back in the couch.  
  
"Ok" Giles said pulling the guitar into his lap. He smiled as he thought about what song to play. Then it came to him. He strummed the cords and Buffy smiled.  
  
"Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone  
  
Susanne the plans they made put an end to you  
  
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song  
  
I just can't remember who to send it to  
  
I've seen fire and I've seen rain  
  
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end  
  
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend  
  
But I always thought that I'd see you again"  
  
He looked up and saw that Buffy had closed her eyes. She looked so peaceful and happy. 'Is there any chance?' he wondered as he watched her lay there smiling. And did he, could he, ever feel the same about her knowing now who she was?  
  
"Won't you look down upon me, Jesus  
  
You've got to help me make a stand  
  
You've just got to see me through another day  
  
My body's aching and my time is at hand  
  
And I won't make it any other way  
  
Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain  
  
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end  
  
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend But I always thought that I'd see you again  
  
Been walking my mind to an easy time my back turned towards the sun  
  
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around  
  
Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things  
  
To come  
  
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground"  
  
Buffy smiled with her eyes closed and marveled at the depth of feeling in the song now. Before with Ripper it had just been a favorite song, but now with Giles it had real meaning. And she could hear it more then ever now. Was there still something there? Could Giles be the one person she had never really seen? 'Well only one way to find out' she thought as he continued to play.  
  
"Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain  
  
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end  
  
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend  
  
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now  
  
Thought I'd see you one more time again  
  
There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now  
  
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you fire and rain, now"  
  
He stopped and put the guitar by his chair. Buffy just lay there smiling as he got up to get a blanket. She must have fallen asleep sometime during the song. He walked back over with the blanket and laid it on her. He smoothed back her hair and smiled. He leaned over to kiss her on the cheek and was shocked to find her lips on the other side of the kiss.  
  
She reached up and put her arm around his neck pulling him down closer to her. His hand went into her hair and she smiled under the kiss. After a second Giles deepened the kiss and Buffy ran her hand up his shirt and over his back. He put his hand on her lower hip and she moaned into his kiss. That seemed to jar Giles out of what ever little world he had been in because he pulled back.  
  
Buffy opened her eyes and looked down at her hands afraid of what she might see if she looked at him. Because during that kiss she had pretty much decided that 'yes she did still feel the same way' but she thought 'maybe he doesn't, now that he knows it's me'  
  
"Buffy" he finally said in a choked voice. 'Ok here it comes' Buffy thought. He cleared his voice and tried again. "Buffy" She didn't look up but she did stand.  
  
"I'm sorry" She said taking one big step around the couch.  
  
"Buffy" Giles said trying to get her to look at him.  
  
"I'm just...sorry...I have to...I'm...I'm going to go" She turned to walk towards the door as fast as she could without running.  
  
"Buffy!" Giles said causing her to stop in her tracks. She turned slowly still not looking up at him. He walked over and lifted her chin with his hand. "Can I say something now?"  
  
"Ok" Buffy said not really wanting to have 'that' kind of talk with Giles, especially with Giles.  
  
"Sit down?" He said leading her over to the couch. 'Oh god' Buffy thought 'He's got to have me sitting so when he tells me that there's nothing there I don't hurt myself in the fall.' They both kind of sat there for a few minutes looking at their hands. Finally Giles spoke.  
  
"Ok" He said nodding his head and smiling at her. "Ok, so the thing is..." Buffy smiled at him as her eyes started to water.  
  
"Wait" Buffy said shaking her head. "When I left you in the park that day there was something I didn't get to tell you" She took a deep breath and nodded her head. "I love you, and I know there's no way you still feel the same, because, hello, it's been like 15 years, but I just had to tell you. So I'm going to go now and I'm just going to...not be around for a little while... ok"  
  
"Buffy" he said shaking his head. "You don't love me, you love Ripper, I'm a very different person now"  
  
"No, you're really not" Buffy said looking into his eyes. "You may be older and wiser" She said smiling a little "But you're still caring and loving..." She raised her and touched the side of his face by his eyes. "You're still him, I just never saw you before" He raised his hand and put it on her hand.  
  
"I love who you were, who you are and who you're going to be," Buffy said smiling at him. He lowered his hand away from his face and looked down at the floor.  
  
"But there's so much— Buffy put her hand on his mouth to stop him from arguing with her.  
  
"Do you love me?" She asked very bluntly before removing her hand.  
  
"Buffy" He said trying to argue again. But she shook her head.  
  
"Do you?" She asked taking his hand.  
  
"Yes" He said still not looking at her. "I tried not to, from the moment I realized it was you I tried to fight it" He said shaking his head as a tear fell onto Buffy's hand. "But I can't, there is no fighting this" Buffy was smiling when he looked up at her.  
  
"Ok then" Buffy said nodding her head at him. "Stop fighting" She said as a tear fell down her cheek. "Because I love you"  
  
"I love you too" Giles said smiling at last. "So, where do we go from here?"  
  
"Any where we want to" She said pulling him towards her in a tight embrace.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Wow Buffy" Willow said after Buffy told her about what happened with Giles. "That's really great, I'm very happy for you"  
  
"Thanks" Buffy said walking over to her bed. "But it's a little weird right?"  
  
"Well yeah a little" Willow said sitting down next to her. "I mean he's been like your mentor for so long"  
  
"Yeah I know," Buffy said smiling. "But it's like ever since I got back I've seen him in a whole new light"  
  
"Well I'm happy for you" Willow said nodding her head. "Have you told anyone else?"  
  
"No just you, though Dawn knows" Buffy said looking to her closed door. She stood up and walked over to the door.  
  
"How could Dawn know?" Willow said looking at Buffy. Buffy just smiled and opened the door and Dawn fell to the floor.  
  
"Hi Buffy" She said smiling at her sister.  
  
"Oh" Willow said giggling. "That's how"  
  
"Dawn what have I told you about listening to other peoples conversations?" Buffy said looking down at her sister.  
  
"Hide well and stay quite?" Dawn said smirking up at her sister.  
  
"I'm sure that's not it" Buffy said reaching over and hugging her sister. "So you're ok with this?"  
  
"Yeah" Dawn said nodding her head. "I like Giles, he's nice. And hey if you get married he'll be like my brother"  
  
"Ok one step at a time here" Buffy said. She walked back over to her bed with Dawn and they all three sat there talking about every thing from guys to slaying.  
  
"Now all you have to do is tell Xander" Willow said smirking at Buffy.  
  
"Oh man, how do you think he'll take it?" Buffy asked wincing mently at all the jokes Xander was going to dish out.  
  
"Oh he'll be wigged out at first, but then the Xanderness will kick in and he'll find all kinds of funny things about it" Willow said nodding her head.  
  
"Yeah that's what I thought" Buffy said.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So how did Xander take it when you told him?" Giles asked as he puttered around in her kitchen later that day.  
  
"Pretty good" Buffy said "Rather well in fact, he also told me he proposed to Anya"  
  
"That's great" Giles yelled from the kitchen. "The council called" He said as he walked into the room with some tea and cupcakes.  
  
"What did they want?" Buffy asked as she took a cupcake.  
  
"I have to go over there for a few days" Giles said looking over at Buffy.  
  
"Why?" She asked looking sad.  
  
"They want to know about this time traveling of ours" Giles said smiling at her.  
  
"You can't tell them over the phone?" Buffy asked pouting a little.  
  
"No, you know how they are" Giles said smiling encouragingly at her.  
  
"When are you going?" She asked reaching over and picking up her purse. She pulled out her date book and opened it to that month.  
  
"I'll be gone this weekend" He said pointing to the dates. "Ok?"  
  
"Yeah I guess" Buffy said nodding her head. "Are you going to...uh...tell them about us?"  
  
"Yes" Giles said nodding his head.  
  
"You don't think they'll try to, you know keep you there or something, do you?" She asked as she started to get a little worried.  
  
"No" He said shaking his head with a small smile playing at his lips. "This isn't as uncommon as you would think"  
  
"Really?" Buffy asked as she flipped through her date book. 'Well that can't be right' she thought as Giles talked to her.  
  
"So you'll be ok for the weekend?" Giles asked penetrating her thoughts.  
  
"Yeah, I'll be fine, your not leaving for a two weeks, right" She asked as her worry started to change directions.  
  
"Right" Giles said smiling at her. He bent over and kissed her on the forehead. "I'm going to go and see how Anya is doing at the magic shop, are you going to go patrol?"  
  
"Huh?" Buffy said as her thoughts started to swarm her mind. "Oh yeah, um later"  
  
"Ok" Giles said taking the tea into the kitchen. "I'll see you later tonight?" Giles had stopped stay in the hotel he had been in for the last few weeks. He slept out on the couch bed (for now.)  
  
"Yeah" Buffy said not really paying any attention.  
  
"Buffy are you ok?" Giles asked noticing her spaced out look.  
  
"Yeah" Buffy said nodding and refocusing on Giles. "I'm fine, I'll see you later."  
  
"Ok" Giles said smiling at her. "Be careful"  
  
"Always" She said nodding her head as a plan started to form in her head. She walked Giles to the door and saw him out. She watched as he climbed into his car and drove down the street. The sun was just starting to go down as she grabbed her coat and headed for the door.

ooooooooooooooo

"Oh god" Buffy said as she paced in the bathroom. "This is not happening to me" She said her head shooting up like a rocket as soon as she heard the door shut.  
  
"Buffy!" She heard Giles call from down stairs. 'Oh what the hell am I going to tell him?' She thought as she walked down the stairs. When she turned the corner in the living room she found Giles standing there with roses and a bottle of wine. As soon as she saw the wine bottle her façade fall and tears started to fall down her face.  
  
"Buffy what is it?!" Giles asked in alarm as he set down the stuff in his hand and rushed over to her.  
  
"Oh Giles" She said baring her face in his shirt.  
  
"Its ok" He said rubbing her back. "Every thing is going to be ok"  
  
"No its not, its never going to be the same" She said in-between sobs.  
  
"Buffy its ok, come on now" he said waling her over to the couch.  
  
"I'm so...so...sorry" Buffy said as the hiccups set in.  
  
"Buffy Luv, tell me what's wrong" He said pleading with her now. She pulled back a little and wiped her eyes and her shirt and looked into his eyes.  
  
"I'm Pregnant"  
  
A/N- Ok so what do you think? This isn't the end so don't worry. I think there is one or two more chapters left. So till next time. 


	5. Life

A/N- I hope you all have good dentist because this chapter is really sweet...Just fair warning, hope you like it...sorry it took so long in coming, I kinda...well I sorta forgot it wasn't done, opps...:-)

Chapter 5 -- Life

"But...but...we haven't..." Giles just stared at her in shock for a moment sputtering words every few seconds. "I mean...how could this...but..."

"Giles" Buffy said putting her hand over his mouth. "We have, remember?" She smiled a little as it dawned on him just when they had done something.

"But that was..." He trailed off and looked down at his hands. "Wow"

"Yeah" Buffy said nodding her head and looking down at her hands. "I noticed last night when you were telling me when you'd be gone. I was so nervous, I don't know what you want to do but--

"Marry me?" he asked cutting her off. She looked up at him slowly a look mixed between shock and joy on her face. "What?" He smiled at her and jumped off the couch and got down on one knee. He pulled something out of his pocket and smiled at her.

"Marry me?" He asked again opening the little ring box and smiling at her.

"Oh Giles" She said as tears streamed down her face. "This is just...I mean...are you sure...we've only just started dating and...Wow that ring is gorgeous" She said as she reached out and ran a finger over the turquoise stone set in a very fine silver ring. She looked up at him as she realized he must have been planning this even before he knew she was pregnant.

"Buffy, for all those years I thought I had lost the love of my life" He said smiling at her. "Then you walked back in and I knew I couldn't let you go again. I want to have a life with you, to have a family, marry me?"

"Ok" Buffy said so lightly Giles almost missed it. "Ok" She said again nodding her head as tears ran down her face again. "Of course I will" She said as he stood pulling her into his arms. "Oh Giles I love you so much"

"I love you too" He said holding her close and smiling at her. "So when should we get married?"

"Soon" She said smiling at him. "Very soon"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"I know it's a little fast but..." Buffy held out her hand to Willow and Dawn, better she hear this from her then through the door.

"Wow" Willow said taking her hand to look at the ring. "Look at that, gees Buffy"

"Yeah I know," Buffy said nodding her head. She looked over at Dawn how was just staring at the ring. "Well?" Dawn didn't say anything she just jumped up and grabbed Buffy around the waist. When Buffy heard the sobs coming from Dawn she started to worry.

"Dawn sweetie?" She said pulling back and little and smiling at the look of pure happiness on her sisters face.

"Oh Buffy" She said shaking her head and laughing a little. "I'm so happy for you" She said pulling her into a hug again. Willow jumped up and joined the hug, the trio laughing and crying at the same time. After a few seconds Buffy remembered her other news and pulled away a little.

"Wait, there's more" She said smiling at them. She laid both hands on her stomach and smirked at them. "You're both going to be aunts"

"What?" Willow asked pulling back as her eyes went wide. "Gees Buffy talk about fast work"

"Wow" Dawn said as a smile curled onto her face. "Oh this is so cool" She said stepping away from Buffy. "Ok, um we're going to need to get started" She walked over to Buffy's desk and pulled out some paper and a pen. "Ok, you're going to get married soon right?"

"Yes" Buffy said smiling and a little confused.

"Ok" Dawn said nodding her head. She wrote something down and smiled. "Ok, the way I figure it your not all that far along so you should do this with in the next three months if you don't want Jr. there to show" She walked over to Buffy's calendar and flipped through it. "How about...oh, how about in November?"

"Well yeah I guess--

"Ok, good" Dawn said cutting her off and nodding her head as she wrote something down. Buffy looked over to Willow with a confused look on her face.

"What is she doing?" Buffy whispered to Willow as they watched Dawn muttering to her self and writing things down.

"Then of course we'll need to get some things for the baby. Um, we'll need diapers and bottles and cloths and...What else?" She asked looking over at her sister.

"Um?" Buffy said looking a little lost. "Excited?" Dawn smiled and nodded her head.

"It'll be kinda like having a little sister" She smiled at Buffy.

"You know I know that _sounds_ like fun but..." Buffy smirked at the look her sister was giving her.

"You think you're so funny" Dawn said shaking her head. "We have a lot of stuff to do and only a..." She trailed off and looked up at her sister. "Is November ok?"

"Yeah, I'm sure that will be fine with Giles" Buffy said nodding her head and smiling at her sisters' enthusiasm.

"And only a month and a half to do it" She finished smiling at her sister. "So where should we get started?"

"Well the dress of course" Willow said shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Come on, we can look them up online"

**---Two Days To Go Till Wedding Bells---**

"Are you sure you have every thing?" Buffy asked as she went through her soon to be husbands' suitcase again.

"Yes" he said taking her hand and leading her away from the bedroom. He led her down the stairs and into the kitchen where there was candles on the table and something that smelled like--

"Spaghetti" Buffy said smiling at him and she looked around the room. "When did you have time to make his?"

"I did it while you were going over finale things with your sister" He said leading her over to a chair. He pulled it out and she smiled at him.

"Ah, such a gentlemen" Buffy said as she sat down and took in a deep breathe of the spaghetti.

"I just wanted a quite moment before tomorrow" He said smiling at her. He walked over to the stove fixed things up and brought it all over to the table.

"Thank you" Buffy said smiling at him as he dished her up some. "I talked to Sam today and the flowers are all done but--

"No" Giles said holding up his hand. "No wedding talk lets talk about Savannah" Giles said smiling. That was what they had agreed on calling the baby if it was a girl.

"Ok, but its not going to be Savannah its going to be Cole" She said taking a bite of her dinner.

"So you say" Giles said smiling at her. "What makes you so sure it's going to be a boy?"

"Mothers intuition?" She said smirking at him.

"Right" He said shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

**---The Big Day---**

"Man look at her" Xander said smiling as he watched Buffy and Giles dance around the floor. "I don't think I've ever seen her...glow like that"

"I know it was beautiful wasn't it?" Willow said smiling and taking Tara's hand.

"Yeah it was" Tara said nodding her head and smiling.

"So we all know who's doing what for the next few days' right?" Dawn asked looking up from her potatoes. "We have patrols and stuff all figured out?"

"Yeah we got it handled" Xander said nodding his head. "I think Spike even said something about helping out."

"Well good" Dawn said nodding her head and smiling. She raised her head and looked up and the almost full moon. They had the wedding at night so Spike could come. Another night crawler was sent an invitation but so far they hadn't heard from him. Dawn shivered and looked up.

"Did you guys feel that?" She asked looking around. It was a little warm for the middle of November and no one looked the lest bit cold.

"No" Anya said shaking her head. "Are you cold?"

"No" Dawn said shaking her head as she ran her hand over the goose bumps on her arm. She looked around the small tent they had put up in the small park by their house. "I'll be back" She said standing in her long rose dress.

"Ok" Xander said nodding his head and watching her walk off till Anya pulled his attention back to her. Dawn walked around the perimeter of the tent till she came to the place. She wasn't sure how she knew but she did. She turned and walked out of the almost transparent tent and headed to the swings.

"Hey Dawn long time" Some one said from behind her. She turned and had her hand on the stake in her purse when she saw who it was.

"You know you could just come in" Dawn said shaking her head. "That's why she invited you"

"I know" He said shaking his head and looking to the tent. "She's happy with him?"

"Yeah" Dawn said nodding her head. "It would seem so, she's pregnant"

"A child?" He said his head shooting up to look her in the eyes. He looked a little weird out by this.

"Yep" Dawn said nodding her head. "I'm sorry"

"Me too" He said shaking his head. "Just as long as she's happy, that's all I ever wanted for her"

"She is" Dawn said nodding her head. "I better get back, there doing the cake thing soon"

"Right" He said nodding his head. "Hey how did you know I was out here?"

"I'm not sure, I think I could feel it" She looked a little confused. "You know the monks they used her to make me"

"So you think...?" He asked looking back at the couple dancing out on the dance floor.

"I don't know" She said shrugging her shoulders. "Could be"

"Tell you I was here and that I send my best wishes" He handed her a box and smiled at her. "You be careful Kid" He said stepping towards her to give her a hug. She nodded her head and smiled at him. She watched as he walked back into the dark and disappeared. "You too Angel"

-o-o-o-o-

"Where'd you run off to?" Buffy asked as she walked back into the tent.

"Just saying good bye to an old friend" She said holding out the box to Buffy. Buffy looked from the box to her sister and took it.

"He didn't stay?" She asked already knowing.

"No, he had...stuff" Dawn said shrugging her shoulder. "Sorry"

"It's ok" Buffy said nodding her head.

"Hey now what's this?" Giles said coming up behind Buffy. "Why the long faces?"

"We had a visitor" Buffy said holding out the package. Giles looked down and saw the little card and Angel's clear handwriting on it. He looked at Buffy and she smiled.

"At lest he came" She sighed and took the present from Giles and handed it to her sister. "Would you put this with the others?"

"Yeah" Dawn said nodding her head. "I'll be right over for the cake stuff"

"Ok" Buffy said taking Giles hand. She smiled at her sister again and pulled him off towards her friends.

After every one had left it was just the core scoobies plus their significant others. Buffy and Giles were sitting next to a huge table filled with presents. Xander had insisted that they open them all before they went on their honeymoon. Buffy liking Xanders' idea had had no problem talking Giles into it. So it was about 11:35 at night and they were about half way through.

"Ok open ours now" Anya said smiling at she handed them the big box. "I picked it out all by my self" She said smiling proudly.

"Goody" Buffy said faking her enthusiasm. Knowing Anya it would be a spell or stake or something. Buffy looked over at Xander who just shrugged his shoulders and smiled as if to say 'Sorry.' Buffy tore off the wrapping paper and opened the box and smiled.

"Oh it's beautiful" Buffy said picking up the golden framed picture. It was all of them plus her mother at a picnic thing they had done last year. The frame was what had caught Buffy's eye though. It was a very old frame, probably an antique, there was a sun in one corner and a moon in the other and at the top it said "Through day and night, through peace and fight, I bless this family, as says me, so mote it be"

"It's very lovely" Giles said taking the frame and looking at them. He then passed it around and each of them nodded and said how nice it was. After all of the presents were done Buffy was cleaning up the table they had been on when she came across the one from Angel.

"Oh we forgot one" Buffy said smiling at Giles who was helping her. The others were in the kitchen making coffee and popcorn.

"Well open it" Giles said smiling at her. She looked up at him and smirked.

"Ok" She said taking off the little bow and ribbon and opening the box to find a little glass blown angel sitting on the soft cotton. Buffy pulled it out of the box and a piece of paper fluttered to the ground. Giles reached over and picked it up.

"An angel to always watch over you" Giles read from the card smiling at Buffy. He looked at her and she smiled.

"It's beautiful" Buffy said walking over and showing it to Giles.

"It is" Giles said nodding his head and smiling at her. "I have the perfect place for it" He said taking it from Buffy and walking over to the front door. He stood up on his tippy toes and hung it on a little nail right above the door.

"Yeah that looks good" Buffy said nodding her head. "Thanks" She said as he walked over and gave her a hug.

"Your welcome" Giles said knowing she wasn't thanking him for hanging it but for understanding that she would want it hung.

"So far so good" Buffy said squeezing Giles.

"Yep" Giles said nodding his head. "Now all we have to do is wait for Savannah"

"Cole" She said moving towards the kitchen where her friends where.

"Savannah" he said smirking at her.

"Cole" She said running into the kitchen with him right behind her.

**---Lets take a little detour to LA, shall we?---**

"Hey Angel" Fred said walking into the room to find Angel bent over a baby swing trying to put it together.

"Yeah?" He said turning to look at her.

"I have something I think you should look at" Fred said smiling at Conner who was sitting in the corner in a baby bouncer thingy.

"Ok" Angel said standing and glaring down at the swing. "I could use a brake anyway."

"Yeah?" Fred said looking a little worried. "Um maybe I should tell you later?" She said smiling a little.

"It's not good news is it?" Angel asked sighing and walking over to Conner. "Does it have to do with him?"

"Yeah" Fred said nodding her head. "And um, well Buffy"

"Buffy?" Angel said looking confused. "What does it have to do with her?' He asked as Conner started to fuss.

"I think you should read it" Fred said setting a scroll down on the table. Angel walked over with Conner and looked down at it.

_Flown back through the years the slayer will go, home again we will find her, with more then when she left. The child she cares undoes the balance, good and evil are again at war and the evil will win unless the answer can be found in the utmost sacred ground, in the place where great power does fall, she still may be able to save us all. The second child of flesh and blood having been born out of death can be the only hope; he will be her only help. _

"Ok" Angel said looking down at the baby in his arms. "That kinda contradicts what the other one says" He said looking up at Fred.

"Well that depends on how you look at it" She said "You see we still don't know if he's...um"

"The good element or the bad element?" Angel said trying to help a flustered Fred.

"Yeah" Fred said nodding her head. "So if he helps her then he's good and if something where to have happened to him then he wouldn't be able to help and it would have technically been his fault"

"Ok" Angel said bouncing the baby a little. "That makes sense." He walked towards the door with Fred right behind him. "We have some stuff to take care of here then I need to tell Buffy"

"Yeah I thought you would" Fred said nodding her head. "That's why I had Gunn go out to get a car seat" Angel turned and smiled at her. "I think this is news she should hear from you in person"

"Yeah me too" Angel said nodding his head. "Who's going to come with?"

"Me and Gunn are going to stay here and work on putting things back in order here" Fred said looking around at the great mess. "When you go you should take Cordy and Wes"

"The Sunnydale crew" Angel said smiling a little. "This could be interesting" He walked towards his office "Lets see how fast we can get things settled here, we need to tell Buffy this"

**---A Few Months Later---**

"So do you want to know the sex of the baby?" The doctor asked as she cleaned up Buffy's stomach.

"No" They both said at the same time. The doctor smiled and nodded her head.

"Ok" She said laughing a little. "I'll just print out one of the sonograms that don't show anything."

"Ok" Buffy said nodding her head. She smiled up at Giles and squeezed his hand. "So every thing is good and healthy?"

"Yep" She said nodding her head. "Ten toes and fingers" The doctor said smiling. "I'm going to go get your pictures then I'll be right back" She said before she walked out the door.

"So you still say girl?" Buffy asked as she pulled on her own shirt.

"Yes I do" Giles said smiling at him. "You'll see it'll be a girl and she'll look just like you" Buffy smiled and rolled her eyes. "Have you gotten your dress yet?"

"No" Buffy said shaking her head. "Did you see the dresses she's making her bridesmaids wear?"

"No" Giles said shaking his head as he helped her into her coat.

"All I can say is thank God I'm pregnant and can't be up there too" Buffy said smiling. "I mean the dress is an ugly green thing with these fluffy _things _on the skirtand a huge green flower thing right here" She said poking him in the shoulder.

"Well lucky you" He said smiling at her. The doctor came back in and smiled at them.

"Well here they are" She said handing them the photos. "You due date is still looking like it will be early July some time"

"Ok" Buffy said nodding her head and taking the photos. They walked out to the car and Giles smiled when he caught her smirking.

"You know don't you?" He asked as they climbed into the car.

"Know what dear?" She asked looking over at him and smiling. He could tell know that she knew she only ever called him that when she was playing around.

"Man we tried so hard to hide it" He said shaking his head. "Who told you?" He asked as he pulled out of the hospital parking lot.

"Told me what?" Buffy asked playing totally ignorant.

"Buffy" Giles said looking over at her as she smiled.

"No one told me anything, I don't know what you're talking about" Buffy said smiling at him as they drove down towards their house.

"Fine" Giles said shaking his head as a small smile started to form on his lips.

"We still need to get a crib" Buffy said going through the list she had in her head. "And we have to decide what color to paint the room."

"I think pink" Giles said earning a glare from Buffy.

"If you start rhyming I may have to through you out of the car" Buffy said smiling at him.

"I'm driving" He said pointing out a very obvious fact.

"I could do it" Buffy said shifting in her seat. "Are we almost there?" She looked over at Giles. "I have to pee" Giles rolled his eyes as they pulled onto their street.

"Buffy you have lived here as long as me, I would think you would know if we were almost there" He said looking out the window and noticed Willow did a good job of hiding all the cars that were there for the surprise shower. Buffy rolled her eyes back at him and smiled when they pulled into the drive way.

"Think you can hold it for a few minutes?" He asked as he helped her out of the car.

"Yeah" She said smiling knowingly at him. "I think so"

"Ok" He said leading her to the door. He opened it up and reached for the lights only to have the pop on.

"Surprise!" every one called out as they jumped out of their hiding places.

"Oh!" Buffy said looking very shocked for someone who knew what was going on. She looked around and smiled as tears formed in her eyes.

"Hey sis" Dawn said coming over and smiling at her. "Did we surprise you?"

"Oh yeah" Buffy said looking around and smiling at every one. Willow walked up next and as she was hugging her she whispered "How long have you known?"

"About a week" Buffy whispered back before pulling away and asking "Is there cake?"

Two hours and a few games later every one was sitting around watching as Buffy opened up presents. She was down to the last one when she came across a box with no card on it. She looked around at all her friends.

"Who's this one from?" She asked holding it up.

"Um" Dawn stood up and walked over with a card in her hands. "This goes with it"

"You already got me one" Buffy said looking over at the beautiful baby swing Dawn had gotten her.

"It's not from me" Dawn said smiling as Buffy took the card. Buffy looked from the card to her sister to the card again. "Go on open it" She urged. Buffy nodded her head and opened the card. When she saw what the front of it said she had to close her eyes to keep the tears in.

"Ten rules to keep in mind when having a baby, from a Mother to her Daughter" Was sprawled across the front in funny letters with baby pins attached every few letters. Buffy looked up at her sister who just smiled. Buffy opened the card and looked inside as tears ran down her cheek.

"I may not be there to watch them grow but my grandbabies will be safe under my eyes" Was written in her mom's neat hand writing on the bottom of the card after the tenth rule.

"How did she...she couldn't have know" Buffy said crying a little as Giles gathered her in his arms.

"I found it in some of mom's things" Dawn said smiling a little. "She must have written it, and then forgotten it was there when she came back from the hospital safe and sound."

"Wow" Buffy said wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "What about the present?"

"It was there too, along with a card and box for me" She smiled at the look on her sisters' face. "Don't worry I stayed out of them"

"Ok" Buffy said smiling at her.

"Well what's in it?" Xander asked smiling at Buffy.

"I don't know, lets open it and find out" She said pulling back the paper and opening the box. She smiled when she pulled out a photo album. She flipped through a few pages and found they where all her and her mother growing up. The last 20 pages where all empty and in the front it said "Fill this with your memories so they never die"

"I think I know just the thing to put in there" Giles said standing and walking over to his coat. He came back smiling and handed something to Buffy.

"Yeah I think that's a great idea" Buffy said taking the sonograms. She picked two and handed the rest to her friends to look at. "Thanks Mom" She said looking up at the ceiling and smiling.

"Ok, so ice cream now?" Xander asked smiling as three pillows hit him in the face.

**---Baby Day---**

"Look at her" Buffy said as she smiled down at her little girl. "Isn't she the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?"

"Yeah" Giles said nodding his head as he watched the baby gurgle at him. "I told you"

"You were right" Buffy said smiling down at her daughter. "My little Savannah"

"Savvy!" Dawn said bursting through the door holding flowers and a huge balloon.

"No!" Buffy said smiling. "You are not going to call my daughter that!"

"Oh but I am" Dawn said smiling as she walked over. "Can I hold her?" Buffy smiled and handed her to her sister who looked a little teary eyed. "Oh she's so little"

"Hey you got room in there for a few more?" Willow said poking her head through the door.

"Of course" Buffy said smiling as they filed in. Xander had a big balloon to and Tara had a little teddy bear. Xanders' really big balloon had 'Savvy' written across it.

"Ah!" Buffy said pointing at it. "I told you!" She said looking to Giles. "Didn't I tell you?"

"Yes you did" Giles said smiling at the balloon. "But I think it's kind of...sweet"

"You would," Buffy said looking over at her daughter fast asleep in her sisters arms. "Savvy" She said testing it out on her tongue. "I guess it's not that bad"

"Yeah" Dawn said smiling down at the little girl. "Savvy it is then" She said kissing her on the forehead.

"Savvy it is" Buffy said shaking her head. She looked to the door when she heard a very familiar voice.

"I am telling you she is a very close friend!" Someone was saying well yelling was closer, at the nurse outside.

"I told you she has enough visitors right now!" The nurse said before the door opened and Cordy walked in holding a big pick bear.

"Buffy!" She said smiling at her and looking to the nurse. "Would you tell this nurse I'm a friend?"

"She's a...friend" Buffy said smiling at the nurse. "Don't worry I'm fine"

"Fine!" The nurse said shaking her head. "Has the baby feed yet?"

"About twenty minutes ago" Buffy said smiling sweetly at the nurse.

"Alright" She said marking something down on a little chart. She then turned and walked out of the room.

"Cordy what are you doing here?" Buffy asked looking at the big pink bear. "Is every thing ok?"

"Um" Cordy said looking around at every one looking at her. "Can't a girl stop by and see an old friend when she has a baby?"

"Well of course" Buffy said not buying that for a second. "What's wrong?"

"I think your going to want to hear this from Angel" Cordy said looking around at all of them. "He's still down in the car trying to get every thing into the ba..." She trailed off and looked at Buffy. She wasn't sure if Buffy knew about Conner and if she didn't this certainly wasn't the way to tell her. "He should be here with Wes in a second"

"Wesley is here as well?" Giles asked looking startled.

"uh-huh" Cordy said setting the big bear next to the little bear on the floor. "They should be here any--

"No!" Cut her off as she looked back to the door. "No more people can possibly fit in that room!" The nurse said as Wes opened the door.

"Ok" Xander said looking around at all the people, there was definitely not room for two more. "Who's hungry?"

"I am" Anya said standing from the little chair she was in.

"Me too" Willow said as Tara nodded her head and smiled.

"Yeah I could eat" Dawn said standing and handing the baby to Buffy. "Lets go I think there's a food court downstairs"

"Sounds like a plan" Xander said heading for the door. "You want something Buff?"

"Chocolate" Buffy said smiling at the look Giles was giving her. "And some milk"

"Alright" Xander said pushing past Wes with a little hello. When the room was cleared of every one but Buffy, Giles and Cordy the door opened again and Wes looked in.

"And how are we doing?" He asked walking in with a mini rose plant and a little pink raddled.

"We're fine" Buffy said looking up when the door opened again and Angel walked in caring a bundle, a crying bundle.

"Thanks for leaving me with that cranky nurse Wes" Angel said smiling at Buffy.

"Angel is that a baby?" she asked as he looked down at his bundle.

"Um, yeah" He said nodding his head. "This is Conner" He said pulling back the blanket to show her. "He's about four months old"

"Whose is he?" Buffy asked looking over at Wes.

"He's, he's mine" Angel said smiling at her. "Surprise?"

"What?" Buffy said looking at him strangely. "How is that...I mean your still, you know"

"Yeah I am" Angel said sighing.

"Ok I'm a little confused" Buffy said shaking her head. "You're still a vampire but you have a baby? And the mother is she a vampire too?" She asked looking over at Cordy.

"She was" Angel said a little sadness to his voice.

"She was?" Buffy said looking back at Cordy.

"No, not me" Cordy said shaking her head. "Still plan old human"

"So who then?" Buffy asked relaxing a little when Giles reached out and took her free hand. She looked over at him and smiled.

"Darla" Angel said watching Buffy for her reason.

"Darla's dead" Buffy said looking confused again.

"She was" Angel said nodding his head. "Wolfram & Hart brought her back to life"

"And you sleep with her?" Buffy asked more shocked then hurt which surprised her a little. "Knowing what that can do?"

"It didn't" Angel said looking from Giles to Buffy and back then down at Conner, if vampires could blush he would be. "It seems only, um, only one person brings me true happiness"

"Oh" Buffy said smiling a little when Giles hand tightened on hers. "So isn't that impossible?" She asked looking at the baby and wondering if it was human of some kind of vampire thing.

"It should be, but apparently not" Angel said shaking his head.

"There're a few prophecies but we're still not entirely clear on them" Wes said speaking up for the first time.

"Oh goody" Buffy said looking from the looks on all their faces. "Oh no" She said shaking her head and pulling Savannah closer. "No" She said shaking her head. "I can't believe this" She said looking up at Angel. "Well let us have it, what does this have to do with her" Angel smiled a little and walked over to the other side of the bed and looked down at her feet.

"Can I set him down?" He asked looking down at his son.

"I don't want this to sound mean or any thing but--

"He's totally human" Angel said smiling at her shocked face again. "I know crazy huh?"

"Yeah" Buffy said sighing. "Well set him down then and let's have it"

"Right" Angel said nodding his head. He set Conner down and opened his coat and pulled out a scroll. "While looking for the scroll to help us with Conner we came across this" He said handing it to Giles. Giles opened it and looked down at the piece of paper with Wesley's neat writing on it. He looked over at the little baby sitting in Buffy's arms then down at the one trying with all his might to sit up and crawl.

"How old did you say he was?" Giles asked looking down at Conner.

"He's a little over four months" Angel said looking down at Conner.

"He's a little young to be moving like that isn't he?" Giles asked looking up at Angel.

"Yeah" Angel said "but--

"Wait!" Buffy said looking between the two men. "Someone want to clue me in here?"

"Oh sorry" Giles said smiling down at her. He held the paper in front of her so she could read it.

"Oh wonderful" Buffy said sarcastically shaking her head. "Cordy could you get the nurse, I want to know when I can leave, Wes how much of this do you understand so far?"

"Very little I'm afraid" He said looking down at his hands.

"Ok" Buffy said nodding her head. "Well then we have a lot of work to do" She sat up and smiled down at Savvy. "Don't worry; we'll take care of this before it even becomes a problem" Buffy said smiling at her as she smiled up at her. "Mommy won't let anything happen to you"

**The End**

A/N- Well what do you think? This is the end of Into Time the sequel will be out shortly, I hope. Again, sorry for the long time coming on this chapter. Let me know what you think.

A/N2- I know a few things may be off in this, like a lot of that with Conner, I don't know how long it took for Wes to send him away mainly because I don't really watch Angel, but I did a little looking just to get some of this right. And I'm sure some of the timing is off a little with Conner's age and stuff but, well you'll just have to ignore it. Hope you like it.


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